Hidden truth
by Lass
Summary: Serenity is getting abused by her father, but hides it from everyone. Will someone break trough her barrier before it's too late? SilentShipping, slight JM FINISHED
1. Masked reality

Hi there. This is my first ficcie, so please don't go to hard on me? Puppy dog eyes  
  
Lass: So, let's see. Who wants to do the disclaimer for me, to make it more interesting?  
  
Whole Yu-Gi-Oh cast is suddenly very interested in the sky, or the floor, or whatever except for poor little Lass  
  
Lass: Nobody? Please, one of you has to be nice enough to do it for me? Please?  
  
Still very interested in every little thing that isn't Lass  
  
Lass: What's so hard about it? It's just one sentence, really...  
  
Serenity: All right Lass, I'll do it, if it makes you happy.  
  
Duke/Tristan: We'll do it for you, Serenity.  
  
Everyone sweatdrops  
  
Lass: Get out of here, Serenity doesn't like you guys.  
  
Duke and Tristan look shocked  
  
Serenity: Ok, so Lass doesn't own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh stuff, except for maybe some cards, and some videotapes with Yu-Gi-Oh on it. She does own the plot of this story, and the computer she is writing it on. That right, Lass?  
  
Lass: Perfect, Serenity, perfect. I owe you big times. Now, let's get to the story. That's what you guys came here for, right?  
  
The kick he gave her turned her stomach up and down. Her vision became blurry, and just when she thought he stopped, she felt her head bang against a wall, and everything went black.  
  
When she woke up, it was completely silent inside the house. No screaming, yelling or snoring was heard. She slowly raised her body from the floor, feeling like a thousand knifes stabbed her stomach. She winced. Slowly moving to the bathroom, she did all she could to keep standing straight. Once inside, she locked the door. Then, she fell onto the floor again. Breathing heavily, she put off her clothes and pulled her body into the shower. When she felt the hot water pouring over her body, she sighed. It stung when it hit her wounds, of which she had many, but she knew tat the blood had to be washed off her body, before anyone would see. She got from under the shower as quick as she could. After putting on a pair of pyjamas, she walked over to her bed. She slept when her head hit the pillow.  
  
The next morning, she woke up when her alarm went off. She growled at the thing, before getting up. She put on her school uniform and pulled a box from under her bed. When she opened it, you could see there was a huge amount of make-up in it. The girl took a brush out of the box, and pulled it through some skin-coloured stuff. She put it on all of the skin that was showing from under her uniform, thinking about the past night.  
  
Flashback  
  
She came home from school immediately, and noticed her father wasn't at home. She was happy about it, because she didn't like talking to him. He got mad at the tiniest faults, and used to beat it into her.  
  
She gladly left a note telling she was out shopping with the girls and wouldn't be home 'till 6 pm. After that, she ran over to her friend's. They had a great afternoon, and time flew by. Just after Mai and her convinced Tea to buy a very short skirt, witch looked perfect on her, she glanced over to the clock. Her eyes widened when she saw it was 5.45 pm. She'd never make it home within fifteen minutes.  
  
Mai looked at her worriedly when she saw her friend stiffen. "Anything wrong, Seren?" she asked. "I... Err, I should be home in fifteen minutes." "You're never going to make it. Not within that short notice." "I know..." Serenity answered miserably.  
  
Tea, who had just paid for the skirt, came over to them. She just heard Mai tell Serenity to run very hard, if she wanted to make it somewhere. She reached Mai when she saw Serenity running out of the mall. "What was that about?" she asked, curious. "She had to be home in time, and in time means at 6 pm." "Ow..." was all she could answer.  
  
By then, Serenity was long time gone, racing to get there in time. And, because she was in such a hurry, she bumped into someone. "Gomen," she excused hurriedly, not even throwing a second look to the man as she ran on. If she had, she would have noticed she bumped into someone who deserved a second look... and a third one, and so on. This extremely handsome man was every girl's dream and therefore, he was extremely surprised as the girl disappeared into the distance. He was Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba corp. Young, rich and very handsome, he was never ignored by any girl who was somewhat his age. But he was in a hurry for a meeting, so he shrugged it off, and walking on, not willing to spoil his precious reputation.  
  
Panting she stood in front of the house. She then grabbed her key and opened the door. 'Please, don't let him be home yet' she begged inside her head. But she wasn't lucky today. "I thought you'd be home at 6!" She shivered when the drunken man appeared in front of her. "I'm sorry, father. I was out shopping with the girls, and..." "There's no need for ya stupid 'xcuses! You were late, an' I don' accept it any longer!"  
  
A rain of fists came down at her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "You worthless bitch! Ya're worth nottin'!"  
  
Not only his fists hurt her, but the accusing words he threw at her did too. He then grabbed his belt and began hitting her with it. "Please..." she whispered. "Stop..."  
  
As in slow motion, she saw his foot coming closer, about to kick...  
  
End flashback  
  
Finally, every bare piece of flesh was covered with the body paint. She walked to the kitchen, and grabbed something to eat. She struggled to get it through her throat, because her stomach still hurt.  
  
She looked at her father, sleeping on the couch, surrounded by empty beer bottles. He looked so peaceful when he slept, but she knew that, if he opened his eyes, they would give him a completely different appearance, which only she saw. Towards other people, he seemed very polite and neat, a very good father indeed. How wrong they were...  
  
Serenity walked over to the door, ready to go to school. When she opened the front door, a smile was put on her face. She returned to being the usual bright, cheery and innocent kid she was supposed to be, showing nobody her real self, and hiding behind her mask of purity.  
  
Lass: Aww, poor Serenity. Isn't it sad?  
  
Serenity: Yeah, it is. I hope it has got a good ending, though...  
  
Lass: Of course it will have a happy ending. I couldn't let this end bad, especially not for you.  
  
Serenity: Well, hurry up and update soon, I want to know how it will end!  
  
Lass: Of course I will, but reviews will help me updating sooner.  
  
Serenity: You heard it, readers. Review and she'll update!  
  
Lass: Promise. 


	2. Consequences

Lass: Hi there everybody! I updated!  
  
Serenity: Yay, great! So you got reviews?  
  
Lass: Yes, I did! Isn't it wonderful? I got three wonderful reviews, and I want to thank LuQ Warm Soup, Tinyflyer02 and Daisy-chanMistress of Evil very much for the reviews.  
  
Serenity: So, can we start now? They reviewed because they wanted you to update, not for some chatting over here.  
  
Lass: Ok, but the disclaimer has yet to be done. And no sees Serenity's terrified face you don't have to do it this time, Seren. One of the others has to do it this time.  
  
Everyone groans  
  
Lass: But, to make it a little nicer, I will give the one who does it a price.  
  
Serenity: What's it?  
  
Lass: The one who does it will be given a great role. Well, who wants to have it, huh?  
  
Mokuba: Well, it sounds pretty nice. I will do it. So, uh, what was it again? Oh yeah; Lass does not own any of the Yu-Gi-Oh characters or something. If she did, I would beg her for a bigger part in the series. She does own a lot of books, and some clothes...  
  
Lass coughs  
  
Mokuba: But that has nothing to do with the fic. Something which she does owns is the plot of this and the computer she is writing it on. Do I get a role now, Lass?  
  
Lass: Sure, cutie. I bet you want to read it. Well, let's see...  
  
It was a beautiful day. The sun shone, and there was a nice temperature. Smiling, Serenity walked over to her friend Yugi's game shop. She saw all of her friends waiting for her already, so she made a quick run to them, ignoring the pain.  
  
"Hi there, guys! Sorry I'm a little late!" "No big point, Seren! But we'll have to hurry if we want to make it in time for school." Her brother Joey answered.  
  
Laughing and talking the group of friends fast-walked to their school. When they arrived at the big building, they saw a limousine standing outside.  
  
"Moneybags had to show his superiority again," Joey murmured angrily. At that, Japan's richest teenager came out of the vehicle. He looked around coldly and smirked when he saw Joey and his friends standing down the road. After that, he walked into the school building, acting like he was a king and everyone else his servants. His little brother walked besides him, greeting everybody, and making Kaiba look even more like a rock.  
  
"Aw, come on, Joey, Kaiba isn't that bad," Yugi said nervously. Joey was looking at him as if he was mad, and so did Tristan and Duke. Ryou, Mai and Tea looked at him a little doubtful, and Serenity seemed to be somewhere else inside her mind.  
  
"Is not that bad?! Yugi, are you crazy?" At her brother's loud voice, Serenity seemed to wake up again. "What's up?" "He...he...said that...that Kaiba isn't...isn't that bad!" Joey stuttered out of disbelief.  
  
Serenity looked at him strangely. "What makes you think he is 'that bad'?" she asked curiously. "He's always calling me a dog, always annoying us, always bragging about how rich he is, always..." "Caring for his little brother, most of the time helping us out, though telling us he hates it. Come on, big brother, he thinks you're a jerk, though you aren't, we all know that. I adore you, you know. But he thinks you're bad. His little brother adores him, and sees his positive sides. Maybe he isn't that bad."  
  
They were walking into the school, but kept talking at the point they had to split up for their separate classes.  
  
"I'm sorry little sis, but Kaiba just somehow seems to be born like a jerk, and I think he'll always be."  
  
"But, Joey, Serenity is right. I mean, he did help us out a lot, and what she said about his brother was right too," Yugi entered the conversation again. But now, Tristan began too.  
  
"Yeah, Joey's right, the guy is a creep, guys. I mean, come on, he's as cold as an ice pillar."  
  
"But around his brother, he seems to be a lot nicer," Serenity countered. "Yes, he would do anything for his little brother," helped Yugi.  
  
"Yeah, well..." Joey started, but he was cut off by the bell. Everyone looked at each other in horror, and while shouting they'd see each other after classes running to their classrooms.  
  
Serenity entered the class, panting. Her teacher was just about to start with the lesson. Then she saw the girl stand at the door, completely out of breath. She smiled at Serenity, and told her to sit down quickly. Serenity did what she was told, and the teacher began. "All right class; open your books at page..."  
  
Serenity was standing at the school gate, waiting for her friends to come from their classes. She snickered a little when she thought about why they could possibly not be there yet. Maybe they had detention because they were late this morning, thanks to their discussion about Kaiba that morning.  
  
She sat down on the wall and grabbed her English' book to learn some homework for next day.  
  
After about a quarter of learning, completely forgetting about her surroundings, she suddenly heard a voice besides her. "Hey Serenity!" She almost fell off the wall, a little terrified. But she soon got her composure back again, and she smiled brightly at the little kid who had said it.  
  
"Hey there, Mokuba! How are you doing?" she asked him kindly. "I'm fine, Serenity, and how are you?" "Fine," she lied. Her stomach was still very painful, and over the day, it hadn't become much better. "What are you doing here alone?" she asked the cute little boy.  
  
"Same as you, I guess..." "What do you mean?" He looked at her naughtily, and answered in an amused voice. "I'm waiting for my brother, and I take it you're waiting for yours?" "That's right. Hey, have you got any idea what's taking them this long?" If possible, his look became even naughtier. "Yes, I sure know..." he said mysteriously. He sounded as if he was about to crack up with laughter. "Would you tell me?" she asked unsure.  
  
"Y...yes," he giggled. "What's it?" He shuddered with laughter as he told her. "Well, you know, our brothers... And Tristan and Duke... They...they...they started some kind of a food fight in the cantina." "What?!" she exclaimed, sounding surprised. Mokuba wasn't able to stop laughing, but, in between giggles, he managed to explain it to the surprised girl. "Well, they... they were arguing, and then... and then, they started... they started throwing with food, and... and it became such a... such a mess and... and other people, they... they joined in and... and everyone was... was dripping with food, and oh, you should have seen it, Serenity. It was just magnificent. Seto and Joey, both throwing everything they could find at each other!" By now, both Serenity and Mokuba were laughing their heads off.  
  
She could just imagine it. Both throwing all sorts of things at each other, both completely covered with food. But suddenly something pulled through her stomach, and immediately she was, instead of laughing, leaning against the wall, trying to ease the pain.  
  
Mokuba was looking at her worried. "Serenity, are you ok?" he asked worried. Serenity?" His voice seemed to come from far away, as if he had walked away.  
  
"Serenity!" She fell down to the ground, and he caught her just in time. What to do now? They were completely alone here, with no one to help, and he couldn't leave her alone this way.  
  
Luckily, help was coming. "Serenity! Mokuba, what happened to her?" Tea was running their way, shortly followed by Yugi, Ryou and Mai. They sat besides them, and Mai felt Serenity's temperature.  
  
Meanwhile, Tea was beaming questions at poor Mokuba, who didn't even have time to answer them before a new one came. Finally, Yugi decided to help Mokuba.  
  
"Tea, you have to calm down. You're not getting any answers if you don't give him any time to answer." At that, Tea quieted.  
  
"Right, Mokuba, what happened?"  
  
"Well, I just told Serenity why her brother wasn't here yet, and she, well, the both of us, were laughing when I told her about the food fight. Suddenly she stopped laughing, and grabbed onto her stomach, and then she fainted."  
  
None of them knew what this was about, so they just waited until Serenity woke up again.  
  
After a while, she began to stir. As on cue, at that moment, Joey, Tristan, Duke and Kaiba walked to the group. "What's going on here?" Kaiba asked with his cold voice. But most of the sentence wasn't audible, because Joey screamed trough it. "Serenity!"  
  
At that moment Serenity opened her eyes. First, she didn't know where she was anymore. When she puzzled it out, she looked surprised at the group surrounding her. "What happened?" she managed to ask.  
  
"Mokuba told us you fainted. Are you all right now?" Serenity looked puzzled, but, after being painfully reminded of it, she remembered; her stomach.  
  
"I guess so..." she answered quietly.  
  
"Come on, Mokuba," Kaiba said coldly. "We're going home. I don't feel much for being around these weaklings any longer than this."  
  
"Why you..." Joey growled.  
  
"Come on you two," Yugi interfered. "You just got punished for making trouble; don't start all over again now, ok?"  
  
Kaiba gave Joey a death glare, and turned around. "Come on, Mokuba."  
  
Mokuba was clearly unsure about what to do now. Serenity gave him a small nod and a smile, telling him to go with his brother. He smiled at the girl brightly and mouthed the words 'see you' to her. Then, he ran after his brother, starting to tell him all funny things that had happened today, but avoiding the subject of the food fight.  
  
Joey growled as they disappeared out of sight. "The jerk. The filthy..." "Joey!" Mai cut off his tirade at Kaiba. "Mind your language!" "But it's right. He's just a big..." He cut off when Mai glared at him.  
  
Suddenly he felt something wet fall on his nose. He looked up to the sky, and saw it was completely covered with big, grey clouds. "Shit," he muttered. Another raindrop hit him. "Oh," Serenity shrieked. "I have to get home!"  
  
What was she thinking? She had to be at home already. She had waited much too long. Not only had she promised her father she'd get home right after school, but the body paint she used was not waterproof either. If it washed off and her friends saw it...  
  
A raindrop hit her arm, and as she watched, the skin over there seemed to become a little blue. She wasn't really thinking when she pushed aside Ryou and Duke and running towards home. Really not thinking... She left her schoolbag behind. All she could think was that she needed to get home as soon as possible.  
  
Millions of raindrops hit the panicked girl, and her scratches and bruises became slowly visible. Just then, she reached her home.  
  
Meanwhile her friends were stunned with her sudden disappearance. "What was that?" said Tristan, putting the thoughts of every one of them into words. "I have no idea..." a shocked Joey answered. The rain became more vicious and they decided to get back into the school before they were completely soaked, calling their houses they would be home later, if necessary.  
  
When Serenity walked inside, she heard the door slam shut behind her. Shaking, she turned around. Her father stood besides the door, a dangerous look plastered on his face. "I told you not to be late again." His soft voice sounded like honey, but Serenity knew she was trapped inside it, like a bee would be trapped inside honey.  
  
"If you don't want to listen..." The cat played with the mouse, and both knew the mouse was doomed. "You will have to face the consequences..."  
  
He was closing in on the frightened girl and she backed up until she was standing against a wall. Outside, the rain had stopped.  
  
Unavoidable, the first slap hit her. And the second did too... And the third...  
  
She heard the doorbell ring, but she couldn't get up. "Stay down, bitch. And don't you dare say a word," he threatened. He then went to open the door.  
  
"Hey, is Serenity there?" It was Tea! "Well, yes, but she's sleeping now," she heard her father lie. "She seemed pretty tired to me, so I'd rather not wake her up. But maybe I can help..." 'No, Tea. Please say you want to see me! Please...'  
  
"Yes, she left her schoolbag at school. Would you give it to her?" 'No!' "Yes, of course. Thank you for coming." "It's ok. I'll see her tomorrow. Bye, mister Wheeler!" "Bye Tea!"  
  
'No! Tea, please come back. Help me... somebody.' Her father entered the room again. The look in his eyes was terrifying. In a sudden move, he picked her up by her throat and slammed her against the wall.  
  
'Somebody, please help...'  
  
Serenity: Wow, I sure go trough a lot.  
  
Lass: You can say that.  
  
Serenity: And who's going to save me from this man?  
  
Lass: Well, it can be about anyone now. I haven't made a real choice yet, though.  
  
Serenity: Please, don't let it be Tristan or Duke. Puppy dog eyes  
  
Lass: Ew, no! They weren't ever in the competition anyway. I just don't think I could make that work. I guess other authors are better writing about those couples.  
  
Serenity: Just hurry up, I want to know the name of my hero, or whatever I should call him.  
  
Lass: I hope I know next time I update. I might put the name inside then. But maybe some nice reviewers would like to help pick someone 'hint, hint!'  
  
Serenity: I really hope so. So, people review!  
  
Lass: I would be really thankful if you would. Really! 


	3. Death inside

Lass: We're back with a new chapter of my story.  
  
Serenity: Yep, but she really wants to thank a few people first, don't you?  
  
Lass: That's right. I would really like to thank Daisy-chanMistress of Evil for reviewing so soon after I posted the chapter. Another reviewer I'd like to thank very much is MistressMoonDemon for her review. I was so glad when I saw that the writer of one of my favourite fics (Healing Her Serenity, you should really read it.) reviewed mine!  
  
Serenity: I think they know now, don't you think?  
  
Lass: Sorry, I was rambling a little.  
  
Mokuba: Kind of. So, who are you going to talk into doing the disclaimer?  
  
Lass: I was hoping you'd do it again. You did so well last time, so I thought...  
  
Mokuba: That I'd say the whole Lass – does - not - own - Yu-Gi-Oh – but – she - does – own – the - plot - of – this – story – and – the – computer - she's – writing - it – on – stuff? No way!  
  
Serenity and Lass giggle  
  
Mokuba: What? What's up?  
  
Serenity: You just said it, Mokuba.  
  
Mokuba: I did? I did! That wasn't so hard after all.  
  
Lass: Did you think it would be?  
  
Mokuba: Just get on with this chapter already!  
  
Lass: Ok. And thanks, Mokuba.  
  
It was the evening of the day after the 'fainting incident' as she called it.  
  
Serenity was lying in her bed, tired of what happened this afternoon. She slowly drifted to sleep, unable to stay awake any longer.  
  
Therefore, she could have impossibly have heard the front door open, footsteps walking to her room or the opening of her own door.  
  
She did wake up at the rough voice shouting at her. "So, you thought that was funny!" She bolted up, eyes open wide.  
  
"You probably thought it was smart, huh, running away! You probably got back into the house when I left, didn't you!"  
  
That was exactly what happened. When he was about to beat her, she had ran away. She hid near the house, and when he left, she got back in, making her homework and doing some other things. She hoped he would've forgotten it, but she knew he probably hadn't. She was right. He was standing in front of her now, throwing insults at her face, calling her names and shaking with rage.  
  
She was terrified. She hadn't ever seen him this mad. She knew this wasn't going to end up pretty, unless something or someone interfered. And because it was 3 in the morning at the moment, that wasn't very likely.  
  
She crawled to the other side of the bed, getting as far away from him as possible. Serenity was trembling with fear. Her father came closer, his eyes narrowed.  
  
'Great,' she thought. 'I was running away from a beating, only to get a bigger one in return.'  
  
"Please father, what have I ever done to deserve all of this?" she asked desperately. Nothing could make this worse anyway, so she would just throw it all out. "I have tried anything to make you happy. I listened to all of your commands, I am trying to do everything perfect for you, but you keep beating me. Why?"  
  
She thought nothing could make it worse, didn't she? Well, she found a way to do it anyway. Fire almost seemed to emerge from her father, making Serenity pushing herself to the wall even harder.  
  
What he said then would haunt Serenity for the rest of her life, scarring her trust in anything forever.  
  
"Do you really think," he sneered, not yelling, what made it hurt even more. "Anybody really thinks you're doing things well? The only reason anyone would talk to you is because they feel sorry because you're so pathetic. Did you actually think anyone thinks of you as good? You have to be happy I'm being completely honest with you, telling you honestly how worthless you are and taking care of you!"  
  
He seemed to be getting angrier with every word he said, slowly raising his voice. "No one, I'm telling you, no one could possibly really care for you!"  
  
Smirking he heard her gasp and start to cry. "No..." she whispered. "No, it isn't true. My brother loves me. My friends, they really like me."  
  
But a little hint of doubt was now apparent in her voice. Her father's anger built up inside him again. She was so weak now. So vulnerable... He hated weak people.  
  
The daughter raised her face towards the father. Her eyes were so empty. As if her soul was taken out of her, leaving nothing but an empty shell. Then he snapped...  
  
She heard her alarm going off. She opened her eyes, not remembering what happened. When she tried to lift her arm, it seemed so heavy...  
  
She was on the floor of her bedroom. How did she end there? When she raised her arm again, a sharp pain rushed trough her whole body. Another one went trough her as she remembered last night.  
  
Everything came back now. The hurtful words, the horrible blows she received...  
  
She got to her knees, ignoring the horrible pain that seemed to rip her body apart. She crawled over to the bathroom, taking a very quick shower. After that, she returned to her room again. She almost fainted from the pain she felt while putting her school uniform on, feeling the material touch her badly wounded skin.  
  
Her eyes showed no emotion while she put the paint on her body, needing a huge amount of the stuff to cover everything up. She swayed when she stood up straight, and she had to lean against the wall while walking to prevent herself from falling.  
  
Once inside the kitchen, she quickly grabbed a bite to eat before walking out of the front door. She was already late because she had to take a shower first, and she didn't have much time for breakfast.  
  
As she walked over to Yugi's grandpa's game shop, she had to lean into a wall sometimes to keep up straight, but she managed.  
  
Grandpa Motou was outside. "They have already left," he told her. "They didn't want to be late at school."  
  
"Oh, it's okay. I'd better be going now," was her fake cheery reply. This only seemed to make her father's words seem truer.  
  
"Bye Serenity," the old man called, looking worried at the girl. Was it his imagination, or was she swaying like she was really drunk? He decided to ask his grandson when he returned from school, and shrugged it off.  
  
When Serenity arrived at school after a hard walk, due to the fact her body kind of was a bundle of scratches and bruises, she walked directly to her classes, not bothering to look around her, and therefore not noticing the way the school had been decorated with all kinds of stuff and huge pamphlets reading their school had won a very important football match against another school.  
  
So, when she arrived at her class and walked in, she was greeted by the sight of even more decorations and a chatting class with the teacher smiling at her desk.  
  
She was a very nice young woman with warm grey eyes and black hair, and she was their English' teacher. Everyone called her by her first name, Sakura.  
  
Her smile turned into a frown, though, when she saw the girl enter. She wasn't looking well at all.  
  
One look in Serenity's eyes told her enough. Something had happened to this girl, and it wasn't good... It was really bad...  
  
She had noticed that the girl, whenever she thought no one was looking at her, seemed to be a lot less cheery as when even one person was looking at her. But now she didn't even seem to care if anyone was watching her. Luckily, that wasn't the case. Everyone was busy having their own conversations, not caring for Serenity.  
  
'Something has to be done,' she decided. She walked up to the girl and took her at the arm. She released very quickly when she heard Serenity holding in a cry. "Serenity, come with me, now," she ordered her sternly.  
  
When they were out of the classroom, Sakura led Serenity into another hallway. She caught her when she was about to fall over, and let Serenity lean upon her for support, everything happening in silence as they walked down the hallway. Every time they passed by a classroom, they heard voices coming from behind the doors, and sometimes even cheering.  
  
The teacher looked down at Serenity worried. She was practically carrying the girl now, and she seemed like a ghost, her eyes emotionless staring in front of her.  
  
They had finally reached the door they were heading for, and Sakura was relieved. She knocked the door, and heard everyone call: "Enter," together. She opened the door.  
  
Lass: What's going to happen now?  
  
Serenity: You're the authoress of this story. You should know.  
  
Lass: Well, not exactly. I'm just writing and seeing the words get on the paper, I mean computer screen.  
  
Mokuba: Well, go put some more words on that screen of yours. I really want to know what's going to happen next.  
  
Lass: Well, the sooner we stop talking over here, the sooner we can start at a new chapter. Oh and readers; please don't forget to...  
  
Mokuba and Serenity: Review!! We know!  
  
Lass: Bye then! 


	4. Really important

Lass: Hi there great Readers.  
  
Serenity: Look, no time for chit-chat now, is there?  
  
Lass: You're right. We should get on with the fic.  
  
Mokuba: Yay! Here's your disclaimer, Lass; this girl, Lass, does not own Yu- Gi-Oh, and that's all that really has to be said, right?  
  
Serenity: You missed the part where you tell she does own the plot and the computer.  
  
Lass: Ah, well, you just did it anyway. Oh yes, I would like to thank clyde007 for her lovely review. Now let's continue the story!  
  
When Serenity caught sight of the people inside the class, though, she seemed to get back alive again. A little, anyway.  
  
"No!" she screamed, running away and soon disappearing running trough the school exit.  
  
For the class Sakura had brought her to was her brothers'. And she didn't want him to know, because, if he did, he would immediately go to her father and trying to get revenge. She knew he would lose such a fight, because her father was very strong. Joey would end up like a mess, being hurt just because of her. She didn't want that to happen.  
  
Joey and his friends were partying because of the victory, talking about how glad they were. Then, Serenity became the subject.  
  
"Don't you guys think we should have waited for her instead of going to school?" Yugi asked, concerned.  
  
"Yeah, I mean, she always waited for us when we were late, right?" Tea added.  
  
"Come on guys, Seren can handle that. We didn't want to be late for the victory party, did we?" Tristan countered.  
  
"I think it's a little mean we didn't wait for her. She probably came just after we left," Ryou said.  
  
Then Joey came in. "Hey, get alive! We've won the game, having a victory party at the moment, so we shouldn't be worrying about Serenity. I'm sure she understands."  
  
They agreed, but just when they were about to get talking about something else, a cold voice came from behind Joey. "I see the mutt and his friends actually came on time today."  
  
"Shut up, Moneybags. I don't feel like ruining my day by talking to you," Joey's sharp reply came.  
  
"I guess you just ruined your day by saying that, then," Kaiba smirked.  
  
Joey turned around angrily, about to make some snappy remark, when there was a knock on the door. "Enter!" almost the entire class shouted simultaneously.  
  
They turned towards the door, and when it opened, the whole class saw Sakura standing there, holding some girl.  
  
As they saw the girl's eyes widen, they realized it was Joey's little sister. Before anyone could say something, the girl screamed, terrified: "No!"  
  
The whole class gasped as she released herself from Sakura's grip then, turned around and ran off. "Serenity!" both Sakura and Joey called at the same time, but Serenity had already disappeared.  
  
Joey was running to the door to get his sister. "Joey," Sakura said. "You won't be able to catch up with her now. But I'd like to speak to you privately for a minute."  
  
His friends saw Joey walk off with the teacher, stunned. After a little while, though, they seemed to have gotten their tongues back.  
  
"What was that all about?" "Why was Serenity here?" "Why was she so shocked?"  
  
Questions filled the space, everyone looking at each other in confusion. Soon, only his friends were interested in it anymore.  
  
"She looked pretty shocked when she saw us." "I wonder what happened..."  
  
"Her teacher probably wanted to talk to the mutt about his sister being late," Kaiba remarked cruelly.  
  
Most of them glared at him, and Duke was about to tell Kaiba to shut up and get out of their conversation when Joey re-entered the classroom. He was frowning now, as he walked back to his friends.  
  
Not even watching at Kaiba he sat back down again. The rest of the gang was now more interested to what he had to tell as in Kaiba, who, unnoticed by them, was listening to their conversation.  
  
"What did she say?" they beamed.  
  
"Well..." The frown was still visible on his forehead as he told his friends. "She noticed Serenity was acting differently when she thought she was alone. Sadder, quiet and a lot more troubled. But when she thought she wasn't alone anymore, she would smile and be happy. Then this morning she was very late, and when she walked into the class, Sakura said she was looking almost... empty. And when they walked here, she told, Serenity almost collapsed on the floor. She told me she was practically dragging Seren here..."  
  
Everyone gasped in shock, and even Kaiba had to admit this was a pretty shocking revelation. "Joey, haven't you got any idea what could've been wrong?" Mai asked worried.  
  
He shook his head to say 'no'. "I haven't got the faintest idea of what could've been wrong."  
  
"I have to admit," Tea said. "She hasn't been looking well lately."  
  
"Yeah, and when she fainted the day before yesterday. Do you guys remember?" Yugi asked them.  
  
"Yeah. I suggest we go for a visit to her house this afternoon," Joey added. Everyone agreed.  
  
She was standing in front of the house panting. She had ran all the way from school, and when she was inside, she collapsed onto her bed.  
  
Her father was right! They hadn't even waited for her, while she had done it so many times before for them...  
  
As her breath became calm once again, though heavy due to the pain of her wounds, who had not taken this running idea very well, she fell asleep, fleeing from her pain for a while.  
  
When she woke up later, Serenity grabbed something from under her bed. It was another box, not the one with the body paint.  
  
As she opened it, you could see a square, with two card-shaped spaces on it. After that, Serenity pulled out a deck.  
  
She had told no one she had one, but she sometimes duelled with it. She was a pretty good player that knew her cards very well, her being the only one denying it. At the moment, though, she didn't get it to play with it. She took off the two cards on the top. They were her two favourite cards out of the deck; Kuriboh and her Dark Magician Girl.  
  
Smiling slightly, she put them on the square, into the two card-shaped spaces. She always had to smile about this, because the square, which she had designed and made all by herself, made it possible for the monsters on the cards to appear, for real. It was kind of like Kaiba corp.'s duel discs, but this one could also be used if you weren't battling, though it could only contain two cards. But the thing did make it possible for her to communicate with the monsters mentally.  
  
The reason why she smiled was that probably no one would think she would be able to make something this technical. She could only imagine people looking at it in awe, and even making Kaiba speechless. 'But it would never happen for real,' she reminded herself. 'People would only use it badly, using monsters to hurt people, even when not battling them.'  
  
Her Dark Magician Girl, or DarkMG, as she liked to call herself, and Kuriboh, who preferred the name Kuri, appeared in front of her.  
  
By their mind link immediately knowing what happened the past few days, DarkMG and Kuri went over to Serenity, trying to calm the poor girl down.  
  
[Do you guys also think I'm sad, and only helping me therefore?] Serenity asked them desperately.  
  
{We sure think you're sad, but that's not why we're helping you} DarkMG told her.  
  
{{No, we're helping you because you're our friend}} Kuri added. Usually, DarkMG was better with words, so Kuri let her do the talking, trying to help Serenity by hugging her and making comforting sounds.  
  
{You're our best friend, Serenity. You gave us the possibility to live kind of a real life, and when battling, you care four us, though most people think we're weak. You've especially helped Kuri a lot by supporting and respecting him, Seren. We love you, like you love us, and we would do anything to help you.}  
  
Serenity started to sob quietly. [Thank you so much, the two of you. You really help me a lot. I don't think I would've made it without you guys. You're the only ones I can tell anything, without fearing to be laughed at, shouted at or fearing that if you find out you'd go after my dad and being beaten to pulp.]  
  
Serenity had never let DarkMG or Kuri help her with her dad by stopping him from beating her. She simply refused anytime, fearing for their safety.  
  
{You know that if you let us, we'd gladly stop your father, do you?} DarkMG asked, as usual.  
  
[I know, but I don't want you getting hurt just because of me.] was the usual answer from Serenity.  
  
{{Serenity,}} Kuri came in. {{it's not 'just' because of me. You're important to us. Really important. Please never forget that,}} he begged.  
  
Serenity smiled at the both of them. A real smile. [I won't...] she assured them. Then, the doorbell rang...  
  
Lass: Ow, cliffie! I usually hate those, but hey, this one just seemed right.  
  
Serenity: Who could it be?  
  
Mokuba: Depends on the time. If it's after school time, it could be her brother and company.  
  
Serenity: Or it could be my fath... oh no, he wouldn't ring the doorbell, would he?  
  
Lass: I don't think so...  
  
Mokuba: In that case, it has to be her friends. Can I please come too? Puppy dog eyes, which Lass, of course, can't resist  
  
Lass: We'll see, ok? As for now, it's 23:33 in the evening, I'm tired and I have to get up at six tomorrow morning, so I say we're done for today.  
  
Serenity: And people, you know:  
  
Serenity, Mokuba and Lass: Please review!!! 


	5. Confusing moments

Lass: Hey! I updated! Mainly thanks to the (only) review I received for my last part. Thank you for that one, MistressMoonDemon!!!!  
  
Mokuba: Hey. Is anyone ever reading this part? Where we talk, I mean.  
  
Lass: I don't know, and I don't know if I want to know either.  
  
Serenity: Yeah, you're right. Should we do a disclaimer in that case?  
  
Lass: Yes, yes, we should! You don't know if anyone is looking for reasons to sue me, and I don't want that to happen!  
  
Mokuba: Can anyone else do it this time? It's not that hard, but I'm just so sick of it...  
  
Serenity: I haven't done it for quite a while. I guess I could do it...  
  
Lass: Ok, but don't overdo it.  
  
Serenity: Lass does not own Yu-Gi-Oh, if she did, it would be disastrous, but she does own the plot of the story and the good old laptop she uses to get it here on FanFiction.net.  
  
Mokuba: Ok, enough! I want the story, so just get on with it!  
  
Lass: Ok, not so touchy, Mokuba. I'll write on now...  
  
She quickly put the square under her bed again, and then walked, still a little unstable, over to the front door. She took a quick glance at her watch. It was after school time, but not much, and her friends wouldn't have been able to get here this fast, not even running.  
  
When she opened the door, it was a surprise for her to see who it was.  
  
There stood her brother, the whole gang behind him. Just when she was about to ask how they got here this quick, she looked behind them and saw the reason.  
  
In the back of the group, she saw Mokuba smiling brightly at her, while Kaiba seemed very bored and annoyed. Behind them, she just saw a limousine pull off.  
  
"Er, come in," she said confused. They all got in, without speaking a word. They refused a drink, but they sat down when she asked.  
  
"Serenity, tell us; what exactly is going on?" Joey asked straight forward.  
  
"I don't think that I understand what you mean," Serenity spoke.  
  
The rest of them were just listening to the conversation between the two siblings. "I think you do. You've been acting strange lately. More distant, less talkative, and so on. Then, you've got that fainting-incident, and then today. Sakura told me you looked like a ghost or something. I want an acceptable explanation for this."  
  
Serenity looked down at the floor, and then pulled her head up again. "Ok, I'll tell you. I've been a little ill lately, and that's probably what you mean. But a little sleep always makes it better. I slept a little today, and I'm really feeling a lot better now!" she explained in the 'cheery- mode' she had been using since they entered.  
  
"But why were you so shocked at seeing Sakura brought you to our class? I mean, that's not so terrifying, is it?"  
  
Serenity sighed softly. "Well," the lie easily rolled off her tongue. "I was afraid you'd find me pathetic if I told you, especially because you don't really notice it on the outside, and I thought that maybe you'd think I was faking it."  
  
"Me? Thinking you was pathetic? You have to be kidding me! I'd never think you are pathetic, little sister!" He pulled her into a huge bear hug, making a soft cry of pain escape her lips.  
  
"What's up, Seren? Did I hurt you?" her brother asked worried.  
  
"No, it's just my skin. It's a little sensitive," she told him comfortingly.  
  
Before anyone could say anything about this, because some of them just knew she was lying against Joey, they heard the door open.  
  
"Ah, that has to be dad. I'll go and greet him," Serenity said.  
  
They all heard her walking into the hall, and then they heard the two whisper. They looked at each other questioning, but before they could say anything, Serenity and her father entered.  
  
"Hey, Joey! I haven't seen you for a long time!" the older man said, as he hugged Joey.  
  
'And you'd wish you hadn't seen him now either,' Serenity thought bitterly, smiling at everyone.  
  
A bright flash of white light told them Yugi changed into his darker self, the old pharaoh Yami. Everyone looked at him, their eyes all asking the same question; 'why?'  
  
Only Joey and Serenity's father hadn't noticed. He had no idea about the whole 'Old Egyptian' things, and Serenity was not planning on telling him soon. Neither was Joey, so he just asked what was going on.  
  
"Nothing," they all answered. "It was nothing. We just thought he said something," Joey finished.  
  
Everyone nodded to tell him Joey's words were true, but that made it even more suspicious. The guy knew Joey was lying, and the fact everyone was lying with him, trying to trick him into believing him made him very angry. But, seemingly calm, he said it was ok. "But tell me, why are you all here?" he asked kindly.  
  
"Well, Serenity has been acting weird lately, and today she seemed very ill and she got home. We came here to check on her. She told us she was a little ill."  
  
"Oh? She didn't tell me anything about it." The guy was playing a very nice game. He noticed, when Joey told him, a few of them were looking like they knew it was a lie. If he had said he knew it, they would know he was lying too, and would probably think he had something to do with it.  
  
He made a mental note to himself to beware of the tri-coloured stranger Joey once told him that was Yugi (A/N: Unbeknownst to him, it was Yami) and the tall, cold looking brunette, whose name he didn't know. Those two knew Serenity wasn't really ill, and would maybe try to find out what was really happening. The most horrible plans already shot through his head as he said them goodbye.  
  
When Serenity came back inside, she saw the look on her fathers face. She knew he was planning something, and she could already guess what it was about...  
  
"Father, leave them alone," she demanded. She shivered inside when she saw him looking at her with rage.  
  
"What did you say?" His voice was shaking with rage.  
  
"You heard me, father. I said, leave them alone." This was the first time she really stood up against her father, for the sake of her friends. "If what you said last night was true, they aren't even going to try to find out what's happening. They would just think; 'good riddance' and leave it. Unless, of course, you were lying to me last night about them not caring about me. What's the truth? Why are you so worried?"  
  
Her voice was soft and steady. She wasn't afraid at the moment. She just knew she had to protect her friends, no matter what the consequences were.  
  
Her father's eyes narrowed at her, wishing for her to be shivering with fear. All he got was a calm face, and her usually warm brown eyes now seemed to be ice cold, looking back at him with just as much force.  
  
The fact she seemed to be totally in control of his game now made him very mad. On the other side, he was almost shivering in fear now. She didn't seem to be scared of him now. Not at all. It almost looked as if she was laughing in his face.  
  
But then, a mistake was made. He stepped closer to her, and for one second, fear appeared in her eyes. He was winning again.  
  
"So, you love your friends this much. You would even challenge me for them. But, my dear Serenity, I bet they don't give a shit how much you would do for them!"  
  
Serenity had already regained composure again, and asked him coldly: "Then why are you planning on killing them already? I know that look on your face very well, father. It never ends well. Where we first lived, you killed one of my friends, leaving me alone. I saw that same look on your face before you killed our mother..."  
  
That did it. He lunged at her, but this time, she wouldn't give it up this soon. She ducked sideward just in time to avoid being hit. He father stopped just in time, so he didn't hit the wall, as she had thought he would've done.  
  
That was why she wasn't out of his way on time a moment later. He grabbed her throat, pushing her against a wall.  
  
"Don't... you... ever... dare... say... that... again!" he told her, saying every word very clearly. "I didn't kill your mother. It was your pathetic little self. You went to her to talk about all this, and she died to help you. You made her arguing with me, and by doing that, you murdered her!"  
  
Serenity was struggling to get free from his grasp, for she couldn't breathe. But her struggles became weaker and weaker as he tightened his grip on her throat.  
  
Then they stopped...  
  
Her father threw her down, kicking her limp body a few times very hard. He snorted out of disgust for this pathetic weak creature. He marched to the door after that, slamming it closed behind him.  
  
The house was sickening quiet. The silence was broken by a terrified sound...  
  
When Serenity walked to the door to open it, she had completely forgotten to get the cards out of the machine.  
  
DarkMG and Kuri had seen everything and now came out of their hiding places. {{Oh no!}} Kuri cried inside his mind. DarkMG noticed he was to shocked to do anything useful, so she told him {Go and stand at the door, and warn me when someone's coming. I'll tell you what's happening here, don't worry,} she assured him.  
  
{{It's not good, is it?}} Kuri asked sadly.  
  
{Nope, not at all. But I'll get her over it as soon as possible.}  
  
DarkMG cleaned every wound on Serenity's body, which took quite a while. She put her in some loose clothing and laid the still unconscious girl in her bed. Then, she received a warning from Kuri.  
  
{{DarkMG, someone's coming!}}  
  
{Who is it?} she asked immediately.  
  
{{Some guy. He was here this afternoon, with her brother and the rest. It's that tall, cold boy!}} His answer came immediately.  
  
DarkMG ran into the living room, and saw the reason of his visit. His briefcase was on the table!  
  
{{Oh no, he's coming up the stairs! Do something, quick!}}  
  
The poor Magician was thinking very quickly, when she got an idea. She raised her staff and a letter appeared on the briefcase. A moment later, the thing stood outside of the apartment.  
  
Kaiba walked up the stairs, annoyed. Why did he have to forget his briefcase? Now he had to go all the way back to this stinky building Mokuba had dragged him to earlier this day.  
  
Outside of the school, he had been waiting for his little brother when he had seen him coming, and with the worst company he could imagine. The mutt and the gang! Mokuba had begged him to give them a ride in his limousine, because they wanted to visit the mutt's sister. Mokuba had dragged him with them. He had to admit, it was pretty interesting. The mutt's sister was hiding something, and, if he had seen it right, her father did too. He knew Yami had noticed it too. Very interesting indeed!  
  
But why would he care for the mutt's sister. Serenity, he thought, was her name. 'Tsk. She's just another stupid Wheeler who can't do anything right!' (A/N: He would be surprised indeed if he saw Serenity's 'Monster Square', as she had named it!) As he arrived at the door, he saw his briefcase, with a note on it.  
  
'Hi Kaiba, I noticed you left your briefcase at our home. I'm away with my father at the moment, so I'm leaving this for you to take. Have a nice evening, Serenity.'  
  
He was confused when he felt a wave of disappointment hit him. 'Why was that?' he wondered. He shrugged it off and left the building, in a hurry to get away from the smell and his confusing feelings. "Kaiba Mansion," he ordered the driver in a stern voice. "Yes sir." They drove off...  
  
Inside the house, DarkMG and Kuri wiped the sweat from their foreheads.  
  
{That was a close one,} DarkMG sighed.  
  
{{Yes. That was a brilliant plan, DarkMG!}} he complemented his friend.  
  
[Guys?] They immediately went back to Serenity's room. What they saw, shocked them both...  
  
Serenity: What happened?  
  
Lass: I stopped writing.  
  
Mokuba: I think she means; what happened to me?  
  
Serenity: Yeah, that's right. I'd like to know, you know?  
  
Lass: I know you know I know you'd like to know what happened to you now, but you'll have to wait for the next chapter. And...  
  
Mokuba: To get her to update sooner...  
  
Serenity: She'd like to get a lot of...  
  
Lass, Mokuba and Serenity: Reviews!!!!! 


	6. New day

Lass: I'm so glad! I got so many reviews! I feel like I can run around my chamber doing a victory dance!  
  
Mokuba: Don't do it. It's a waste of time, running around when you can write a new chapter.  
  
Lass: You're right. The people I want to thank for reviewing are Daisy- chanMistress of Evil (Yes, I love Dark Magician Girl, she's my favourite Duel monster!) and ChaosMistress; thank you so much! I needed that!  
  
Serenity: Ok, so Lass does not own Yu-Gi-Oh (Duh. Can you imagine a fourteen year old take care of all Yu-Gi-Oh stuff without getting crazy?) She does own the plot of this story and the computer which she can write her stories on.  
  
Mokuba: Yeah, now on with the story! I want to know what happened to Serenity!  
  
DarkMG and Kuri ran into the room. {Serenity, what have you done?!} she screeched inside her mind. Serenity was lying on the floor. Seemingly, she had tried to get up and walk.  
  
[I've got homework to do.] Even Serenity's mind voice was hoarse.  
  
{Homework?} DarkMG asked, confused. Meanwhile, she and Kuri were getting her into bed again.  
  
[Homework, for tomorrow at school.]  
  
{You can't go to school like this, Serenity!}  
  
[But I have to. Else, my father will beat me up even more, because I don't get good enough grades.]  
  
{{I will get your homework, but please stay down,}} Kuri agreed.  
  
{At least let me help you then,} DarkMG pleaded.  
  
[Look, guys,] Serenity began. [I can't let you do all of this for me. You've already done so much...]  
  
{If we didn't want to, we wouldn't have done it anyway. We could've just flown away from you. We could've token the Monster Square and never returned again. But we want to stay with you, and help you, so we do. Would you please understand that, Serenity? We know it is hard for you to accept help, but you really need it. At least let us help you. Please, Serenity?}  
  
Kuri had returned with her homework. [All right. Thank you, guys. You really help me, even by just being here.] A small tear escaped her eye. She hadn't cried since a very long time.  
  
They started making homework, all three of them together. They were soon finished, and they decided to talk a little. Then, they heard the front door open. Serenity already had the Monster Square on her lap. When she had said a quick goodbye, she got the Monster cards out, and put them under her bed.  
  
She heard her father walk to her room, and she acted as if she was sleeping.  
  
Luckily, her father did not seem to be planning on bothering her tonight. She heard him walk to his own room for once. It was a long time ago since he had really slept there. Serenity was unsure what to think of it, but, as his snoring started to sound, she thought; 'Maybe he didn't get drunk tonight or something like that...'  
  
An hour later, Serenity was still unable to sleep. She got up, and managed to get to her desk. She sat behind it, and grabbed something which had been hidden besides it. It was a pretty much finished Monster Square, but Serenity was still working at it.  
  
Very early in the morning, she put the sides on it. She was finally finished. She was planning on giving it to DarkMG and Kuri, to get some friends themselves, besides her. But now she had finished it, she wasn't so sure if it was a good idea. If she sent them away with this, maybe they would put some evil monster in it, which would be able to get the cards of DarkMG and Kuri out of their own Square, even if she kept it herself. She probably wouldn't be much of a challenge for any monster.  
  
She decided to talk about it to them now. She put them in their own Square, and they appeared in front of her.  
  
{What are you doing? You should be in bed, sleeping at the moment!} DarkMG was very concerned. Serenity was not looking very well.  
  
[I couldn't sleep, but don't worry. I wanted to talk to the both of you about something.] When she took the second Square from her desk, the Duel Monsters gasped in shock.  
  
{{A second one?}} Kuri asked, shocked.  
  
[Yes. I was first planning on giving it to you, but now I'm not so sure about that anymore.]  
  
{You'd better not be sure about that, no. I'm sorry to say this, Seren, but it isn't such a good idea.}  
  
[I figured that out. I just didn't want to make you upset by not trusting you with it.]  
  
{Not at all! We know perfectly well it isn't a good idea! Don't worry about that, Seren.} DarkMG assured her.  
  
Serenity yawned loudly, causing DarkMG and Kuri to grin. {You should really go to bed, you know?}  
  
As she pulled the cards out of the Square, she wished them a good night, and then she got into her bed. Strangely enough the sleep didn't come immediately. Instead, she thought about her friends, indirectly the reason of her beating.  
  
They had all came. Joey, her big brother, Yugi, whose Yami had known exactly she was lying, Ryou, a good friend, Mai, Joey's soon-to-be girlfriend if Serenity and Tea's plans worked out right, Tea, nicknamed Friendship girl, but very nice, Tristan and Duke, two boys of who she knew they liked her, but always acting clueless, Mokuba, the little boy who was with the group more often these days and his brother, the great Seto Kaiba.  
  
Serenity smiled when she thought of his face again. He didn't want to be there at all, she knew. Mokuba probably dragged him with them, much against his brother's dismay. 'But then again', Serenity thought as her smile turned into a frown, 'he noticed I was lying too, and father knows. So he'll be extra observant when they're around. I should look out for that.'  
  
She almost burst out in laughter at that. 'Me, Serenity Wheeler, unimportant little girl, living in the poor districts of Domino, protecting the King of Games and a former pharaoh, and the CEO of Kaiba corp. and also the richest man in Japan from my father?! Ridiculous!'  
  
She was deeply disappointed at herself. She couldn't do something against her father for her own good. How could she possibly do it for her friends then?  
  
She was thinking about the afternoon, and what happened after her friends had been there. She had almost won. She knew the flash of fear made her lose the battle. But she was able to keep him straight, for her friends' sake.  
  
At that thought, she entered a deep, dreamless sleep.  
  
The next morning, the beeping of the alarm woke Serenity again, as usual. Her sleep had been deep and healthy, and she was kind of feeling fine, today. Of course, there were still the bruises and the cuts, and she remembered them very well when she got up, but still...  
  
The sun was shining, she heard some birds outside singing their songs and she had a very nice sleep.  
  
If it wasn't for her wounds and the fear of waking her father up, Serenity had been dancing and singing around the house.  
  
The dancing didn't work, but she sang happily as she walked over to Yugi's Game shop. She heard a voice behind her. "You seem very happy, Seren! Good to see you today."  
  
When she turned around, she was face to face with Mai. "Morning, Mai!" she said happily. They walked the rest of the road together.  
  
They seemed to be the first ones there, as there was nobody standing in front of the building. After a little while of chit-chat about stuff, where Serenity tried to steer the conversation topic to her brother, Tea and Duke came walking their way. A little while later they saw Tristan coming to them, with Ryou following him close behind. When Yugi exited the shop at the same time, they were just waiting for Joey.  
  
"Here I am already!" They all laughed when they saw a tired, red-headed Joey running over to them. "Thousand apologies, I'm sorry for being this late!"  
  
Everyone laughed out loud when Joey managed to trip over some rock on the ground. "We'd better hurry to school, or we'll be very late," Tristan said, helping Joey up.  
  
Some gasped in shock as they were reminded of the fact, and they all ran off to school. Serenity was trying very hard not to show the running was torturing her, and seemingly doing a very good job at it. No one noticed, but she got further and further behind.  
  
Yugi, because he was shorter than the rest, was getting a little behind too, so nobody noticed him changing into Yami, except for Serenity. He waited for her, and when she arrived at his side, he helped her walking a little harder to catch up with the others, not asking questions about anything the whole time.  
  
When they got to school, he turned into Yugi before any of the others saw him. "I have to speak to you at lunchtime," he told her, and then Yugi was back. The others looked back almost at the same time, noticing Yugi and Serenity coming.  
  
"Watch it, Joey!" Mai called, just in time to make the boy notice the big black limo and jump out of its way. "Kaiba," he growled.  
  
That morning, Kaiba woke up in a strangely good mood. After eating breakfast with his brother, he called for the limousine to get him to school. Inside the car, he pulled out his laptop and began typing away on it. He took a loo at his work, began checking his e-mail and the stocks of Kaiba corp.  
  
'Nice work, the new Duel Disc is almost ready. Some mail from business affiliates, and... Stupid fan girls! How come they always manage to get a hold of my address? I love you... You're my greatest hero... I think you're hot... Geez, how hackneyed can they be? The stocks are better than yesterday. Good, just perfect. It's a wonderful day today.'  
  
He was stopped thinking by Mokuba. "Look Seto, it's Yugi and his friends!"  
  
And indeed, as Kaiba looked out of the window, he saw them running towards school, Yugi running a little behind him. He was surprised at the sight of Serenity walking even farther behind. She should be able to walk harder than Yugi.  
  
He saw Yugi glow and change into Yami. He waited for Serenity, then grabbed her arm and pulled her with him to the rest. At the school gates, he saw Yami say something to Serenity before turning back into Yugi. The others turned around to the two, Joey standing half on the road.  
  
Kaiba smirked as the chauffer almost drove against Joey, and when he got out of the car, he met with a very angered Wheeler. "Good morning, mutt," he greeted him.  
  
"Kaiba," Joey greeted back, his face still angry. But before any of them could say a thing, or start anything, they heard someone asking them something.  
  
"If we don't hurry, we'll be late at school," Serenity remarked. "I think we'd better get in."  
  
"Yes," Mokuba followed quickly. "Let's go, I don't want to make my teacher mad."  
  
With one last glare at each other, Joey and Kaiba got in, leaving the others sighing in relief, and then getting in, starting another day of school...  
  
Mokuba: We saved the day, didn't we, Serenity?  
  
Serenity: We sure did! Why are our brothers always fighting, while we can get along fine? Truly beats me...  
  
Lass: Well, anyway review if you want to know what's going to happen next!  
  
Mokuba: And why would they review? You like this story enough to update, even if there are no reviews!  
  
Lass: Every reviewer may think of how I can thank you and put that in her/his review, and I will do it then.  
  
Serenity: We all hope you'll review! See you next chapter! 


	7. Growing feelings

Lass: New chapter, people! I managed to get it done thanks to the great reviews of Chibi-Kari, Chinxy, Daisy-chanMistress of Evil and MistressMoonDemon. Thank all of you!  
  
Serenity: She does not own Yu-Gi-Oh, but the plot of this story is hers!  
  
Mokuba: On with the story. I think it's sad, though, that no one reads this...  
  
Serenity entered her maths class, sitting down behind the table in the very back of the classroom. 'Why does Yami want to talk to me? Could it be because of yesterday?'  
  
Just then, class started and she had to turn all of her attention to the teacher, meanwhile scribbling down notes.  
  
Inside another class, lessons hadn't started yet. The teacher was very late, and all of the students were talking to each other. You can probably guess whose class it is already...  
  
"So, when I finished off his last monster, his life points were brought down to zero. He almost started to weep. Can you imagine?" Joey asked his friends. He had just told his friends about some match he had won. "When he gave me his strongest card, he really broke down. It was completely ridiculous! The boy was older than my sister, and he was crying like a baby!"  
  
"Of what you told us he was pretty attached to that card, wasn't he? What would you do if you had just lost your Red Eyes to some stranger who was humiliating you all the time you were duelling, while duelling is your whole life?" Yugi asked friendly.  
  
Joey's eyes drifted downwards. "Ok, you're right. I probably was much too hard on him, wasn't I?" All of his friends nodded slowly, all of them feeling a little sorry for the boy.  
  
As they continued about duelling, Yugi spotted Kaiba sitting in a corner of the room, typing away on his laptop. He decided to be nice to him, and walked to him. "Hi there, Kaiba! How are you today?" he asked in his high- pitched voice.  
  
"I'm fine, Yugi, just fine," he answered (A/N: he was in a good mood today, remember?), before returning to his computer.  
  
Yugi didn't know exactly what to do now, but then the others walked over to him, seemingly wanting to ask him something, so he walked in their direction.  
  
At the same time, another boy out of their class, who they didn't know that well, walked over to them. He surprised them all with is question, even Kaiba, to who they were close enough to hear (A/N: Of course I want him to hear this. It's so much fun make him!).  
  
"Joey, could you tell your sister I'm ready for my rematch?" They were all looking at him clueless, except for Kaiba, who hid it behind his screen.  
  
"Rematch of what, what do you mean?" Joey asked.  
  
"I mean the Duel Monsters rematch she promised me," he answered.  
  
"Duel Monsters? Serenity plays Duel Monsters?" Joey didn't understand it at all, and neither did the rest of them.  
  
"Yeah, quite a while, I believe. Didn't you know?"  
  
"I hadn't got the faintest idea... So, she won?" he asked, now eager to know anything about it.  
  
"Yeah, she really kicks butt. I've heard she never lost a duel before."  
  
"So, do you miss your rarest card a lot?" Joey asked teasingly. Mai shot him a warning glare, but he didn't pay attention to it.  
  
"Well, that's the strange thing of your sister's duelling," the boy answered. "She agrees to duel, but only according to her rule; the loser hasn't got to give her his rarest card, but she picks one. Of all of her duels I've seen, she never picked the rarest card. She usually picks weak cards, or cards her opponent isn't much attached to anyways. So no one ever feels too bad about losing to her anyway. She did agree to give me a chance to win my Koumori Dragon back, though."  
  
"Your Koumori Dragon? She picked your Koumori Dragon? You hated that card, and it's weak! Why did she pick that one?" Joey was completely surprised by this story.  
  
"As I told you before, she picks weak cards and cards her opponent isn't much attached to anyways. Well, in my case, she couldn't have picked a better one. I have to admit I was very surprised when she managed to beat me, mainly with her Kuriboh and her Dark Magician Girl, and even more when she decided to take my Koumori Dragon."  
  
Before Joey or any of the others could say something else the teacher finally entered the noisy classroom. "All right, class; get your books out of your bags! This Friday, we have a lot of catching up to do," he said, but he was interrupted by the class, who was really not happy about that. He was the one who was late, not them! But they had to work anyways, so they just grumbled a bit and did what the teacher asked them, though only half heartedly.  
  
They were all still thinking about what their classmate had just told them. None of them even had any idea Serenity was duelling, let alone winning every duel.  
  
Kaiba had to admit that he did get a little respect for the younger Wheeler now. He knew the boy they had just talked to wasn't that bad of a duellist, and winning with the kind of weak cards he had just talked about...  
  
The bell rung, as a sign the break had started now. Serenity remembered Yami asking her to meet him now, but he hadn't said where he would be. So she went off in the hall to look for him.  
  
It was very crowded, and Serenity hated it. Then a path was made in the hallway. She took a look to where the path had come from.  
  
Serenity pushed herself to the wall too when she saw the school bullies coming her way, their faces grinning and looking evilly, but it wasn't needed. They didn't even give her a second look. It seemed like they were going somewhere. Or searching for someone...  
  
Not wanting anyone to get hurt, Serenity silently followed them, careful not to be seen by any of the members.  
  
She wasn't surprised they were walking to the younger part of the school. An evil chuckle of the leader told her they had found their target. And indeed, they changed directions.  
  
Serenity gasped shocked. 'Mokuba!'  
  
Their target was indeed the small boy, who was sitting alone on a bench, as his friend just walked away. Then, he noticed the boys coming towards him. He seemed frightened, which wasn't so strange if you knew these bullies had managed to get some students in the hospital, or at least almost.  
  
When they kept coming closer, Mokuba's eyes widened. He stood up and was about to take a run for it. But at that time, it was already too late.  
  
One of the boys grabbed his wrist to prevent him from running, while the others started throwing insults at him, laughing at his frightened expression. None of his classmates helped him, afraid of what the older boys would do.  
  
Mokuba got small tears in his eyes as he knew no one would help him with this.  
  
"Big brother ain't gonna help ya now, little termite! Ya're so doomed!" the voice of the leader reached his ears. He started to struggle to get free, doing the only thing he could.  
  
Then, his leg hit the leader, harder than he had expected from such a small boy. His face pulled into a raging expression, his fist hit the boy hard. The other members of the gang were laughing as his fist connected for the second time, while Mokuba lost all hope. But then, he heard something...  
  
"Hey, you there! Stop this nonsense immediately!" As the leader turned around, he saw who the voice had come from. Wheeler's sister, defending Kaiba's brother. How ironical...  
  
"And why should I stop at your command?" he asked slyly. Mokuba was relieved the beating had stopped, for now at least.  
  
"You'd better pick someone your own size. Or are you just too wimpy to fight a real fight?"  
  
His face got enraged again. How dared this girl challenge his superiority? She should be shaking with fear now, but instead, she just kept throwing insults at his head, continually repeating how much of a loser he was if he couldn't even beat someone his own size.  
  
"After her," he growled at the rest of the gang, completely forgetting Mokuba. 'Serenity, what are you doing?' he screamed inside his mind.  
  
The gang was now standing in a circle around Serenity, all of them looking very pissed off. Instead of shivering with fear now, as they had hoped she would do, she just continued insulting them, calling them weaklings.  
  
"I thought you were more of a man than this. Attacking small children instead of just fighting someone your own size! How low can you go?"  
  
That was when one of them snapped, lunging towards her. She stepped aside and made him trip, causing him to stumble into one of his mates.  
  
All of her fighting techniques were needed to defend her now, as they all attacked her. And even that wasn't enough to avoid being hit. When one of their fists connected with a bruise her father had recently gave her, she winced in pain, but continued fighting, happy Mokuba wasn't the target of their rage anymore.  
  
Mokuba saw them fighting now, and was desperate in search of something that could help the poor girl in the middle of this all. "Mokuba," a stern voice asked from behind him. When Mokuba turned to find his brother behind him, his face lightened with relief.  
  
"One of your classmates came running to me telling me you were attacked by those jerks. What happened?" Mokuba's face became serious again when he was reminded of the bullies, and then turned into a pleading expression. "Please help her, Seto," he said, pointing to the fighting group behind him. He couldn't see Serenity, and he was very worried about the girl who saved him.  
  
Kaiba didn't ask anything now, he just walked over to them. "Hey!" he said commanding. The guys stopped beating... whoever it was and turned to him. Their faces turned from angry to frightened as they saw the tall CEO standing there. He was the only one in the whole school they were afraid of.  
  
That was the reason they had attacked Mokuba at first. It was some kind of a deed to show him they weren't afraid of him. Well, they were, and as he stood in front of them, they decided not to take any risks and run for it, which left only Serenity leaning against the wall, and some guy on the floor who she managed to knock out.  
  
Kaiba then turned to Mokuba, not even taking a second look at Serenity, though he was very worried about the girl. He had to keep up his cold mask.  
  
"Now tell me what happened here," he said to Mokuba.  
  
Mokuba spat out the whole story, meanwhile he was looking worried at Serenity. There were no bruises or scratches visible. Kaiba noticed it too. 'She has to be hit a few times, but there's nothing to see.'  
  
He was surprised to hear what she had done for his brother, but he was even more surprised when he saw the member of the gang she had knocked down still wasn't back to consciousness. 'She probably hit him very hard. I sure got to know some pretty surprising things about her today.'  
  
She looked down at the stare of the two boys. "I guess I'd better leave," she muttered, as she suited the action to the word. She almost froze when she heard Kaiba's voice behind her.  
  
"Thanks," he whispered, hoping she hadn't heard it. She had, but, at the tone of his voice, she acted as if she hadn't. Kaiba thanking someone was very rare, and probably very hard for him to do.  
  
As the girl disappeared out of sight, Kaiba sighed in relief. This Wheeler girl made him feel so strange lately...  
  
He didn't like the feeling, so he decided to avoid her as much as possible. His train of thoughts was interrupted at the sound of the school bell, a sign for him to get to his class. "Have a nice rest of the day, Mokuba," he said as he ruffled the boy's hair.  
  
His little brother watched him disappear from sight too. He had been very surprised as he heard his brother thanking Serenity. He hadn't done that for many years, at least, not this sincerely. 'This sure is a strange day,' he thought, as he walked to his class.  
  
Serenity walked to the ladies' room and got in, ignoring the sound of the bell. Then, she collapsed. She was lying on the floor, and she could impossibly get back up again. Everything hurt, and she got the body paint off the places where she was hit. At those spots, blue and red skin was seen.  
  
Serenity heard the door open, but she didn't have the strength to get back up. "Serenity!" She recognized Mai's voice. "Here you are! Tea and I have been looking everywhere for you."  
  
Just then Mai noticed Serenity wasn't moving. "Serenity?" she said as she walked over to her. When she looked into the girl's face, she saw Serenity was barely conscious. Mai put her arm around her and picked Serenity up.  
  
The story had already been told around whole Domino High, and Mai and Tea were worried about Serenity. They had decided to go and look for her, but the teacher of Serenity's class had told them she hadn't shown up yet. The administrator had told them Serenity was still at school, so they had started searching her.  
  
Mai saw Tea and called her. "Tea, I found her! Over here!" Tea immediately came, and gasped as she saw Serenity.  
  
"Mai, you'd better take her home. She isn't looking good at all. I'll warn the teachers." Tea said, acting immediately. Mai nodded, and took off to the door.  
  
Tea first walked to Serenity's class. An "enter" was heard as she knocked on the door. Tea walked to the teacher. "Serenity went home. She isn't feeling well." The teacher told her it was ok, and Tea left again.  
  
She sighed as she entered her own class. Everybody, even Kaiba, was watching at her, waiting for what she had to say. "Mai is taking Serenity home. I'm sorry to say this, Joey, but she wasn't looking very well," she added.  
  
Kaiba looked shocked, maybe even worried, but it went unnoticed by most of them. Tea, because she was standing in front of the class, did see it, and a thought formed inside her mind. 'Could he be...? No, he can't be, can he? No, not with Serenity. He probably just feels guilty, that's all.'  
  
Kaiba tried to tell himself the same thing. 'Why am I so shocked about this? Why do I even care about how she is? It's probably just a misplaced feeling of guilt, that's all.' But he couldn't shake off this strange feeling he had also felt when Mokuba was captured by Noa. Worry...  
  
Mai put Serenity in the front seat of her car and sat behind the steering wheel. She looked at the poor girl beside her and sighed. 'Why must it be Serenity? Things haven't been going well for her lately already, and now this.'  
  
She drove to Serenity's house, hoping her father would be home to take care of her. Unbeknownst to Mai, Serenity was thinking the exactly opposite. 'Please, don't let him be home yet. I don't want to be left alone with him.'  
  
When they arrived, Mai helped Serenity get to the door, and she rung the bell. One tear dropped from Serenity's eye unseen as she heard someone opening the door. "Mr Wheeler, I'm so glad you're home," she heard Mai say. "Serenity has been beaten by the school thugs, and she's not well, so I brought her home."  
  
"Thank you very much, Mai. Hand her over to me, I'll take care of her, then you can get back to school."  
  
Serenity felt herself being handed over to her father, while he was thanking Mai over and over, but in this state, there was nothing she could do.  
  
Her father closed the door and kept standing there, with hid daughter in his arms, until he heard Mai's car pull off. When the sound had disappeared, he dropped Serenity on the ground.  
  
"The school thugs, huh?" he asked her coldly.  
  
"Really, I didn't do anything this time," Serenity pleaded, her voice barely above a whisper. "I told no one..."  
  
"You'd better not," he said, his voice filled with hate. Then she noticed he didn't seem drunk. "I'm going away for the weekend. I don't want you to get out of the house. I already bought enough food to last trough the weekend. Have fun," he said, giving her one vicious kick as he walked out of the door, a bag in his hand.  
  
With her last power, Serenity crawled over to her room and grabbed the Square. As she put the two cards in it, she finally lost consciousness, not able to stay up any longer.  
  
Lass: That's it for this chappie! I hope I'll see you next time!  
  
Mokuba: And, for the (probably) very few of you who are reading this...  
  
Serenity: Review!!!! 


	8. Silence before the storm

Lass: People are reading this, people are reviewing this! I'm on top of the world!  
  
Serenity: Cool down, Lass. It's not as if you're becoming a millionaire by writing fics about stuff you don't even own.  
  
Mokuba: I checked the reviews. I suggest you'd thank MistressMoonDemon, Chibi-Kari, Sologirl, BlackIce29, Tinyflyer02 and Lady-Wicca666 for their fantastic reviews. I loved all of them, and so did Lass and Serenity.  
  
Serenity: And about the disclaimer; if you are too stupid to know yet, Lass doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, ok?  
  
Lass: On with the story.  
  
Serenity woke up lying in her bed. [Kuri,] she cried as she saw the cute little Monster sitting besides her.  
  
{{Serenity, you're up! Finally!}} He seemed very relieved, and as she watched the clock, Serenity could understand why. It was 11 pm!  
  
{Seren!} DarkMG flew into the room, carrying some damp clothes. {I'm so glad you finally got up! Now, let me help you, while you explain what happened,} she said, while washing Serenity's wounds with the clothes.  
  
Serenity was in great pain, but she knew it had to happen. She took her thoughts off it when she explained what had happened that day. [And then, he gave me a kick and left,] she finished her story.  
  
{Jerk! I hope he'll never come back either,} DarkMG said hateful.  
  
{{Yeah, I agree with that! He's really worth nothing,}} Kuri said, strangely harsh. Serenity didn't know how to handle this. She had never seen Kuri like this.  
  
{Why won't you just go to the police? You've got all the proof you need, and if he's in jail, I'm sure one of your friends would take you in,} the female Duel Monster asked.  
  
The bad thing of talking inside your mind is that thoughts that come and pass by can be heard too. The one Serenity accidentally let slip now shocked both of her friends.  
  
[But what if he was right? What if they do hate me? What if...]  
  
{Serenity!} DarkMG quickly interrupted. {You know he was lying. You know it! Don't deny it. You know they don't hate you! Now answer my question. Why don't you?}  
  
[You don't have the faintest idea... I tried before, you know. Or better said my brother did. We were living at our fathers' and our mother was still alive.] This revelation hurt her, but she continued bravely. [He used to hit my brother and me when he was drunk. My brother moved out and my mother and I were left with that piece of scum. My mother didn't know anything about it. One time, my father went too far on me, and I turned to Joey for help. He called the police. The fact my mother didn't know anything didn't help; she couldn't testify. Father had always told us that if we told her, both she and we would be punished badly. My father talked himself out of it. He promised mother, Joey and me he would never do it again. It was all the alcohol, he kept repeating. It went well for a while, but one night, he came home. The look in his eyes told me it was wrong; it was. He started again, beating me up almost every night. I turned to my mother this time. She went to confront him and he...]  
  
The words hung in the air, unspoken but clearly audible. [Murdered her...]  
  
The silence was hanging in the air, pressing down on them. Quietly, Serenity started to sob. Both DarkMG and Kuri went over to her and hugged her. Serenity closed the mind link from her side, not willing the two Monsters to see the images that came up now. As time continued, Serenity cried herself to sleep, fleeing from this horrible thing called life.  
  
The weekend went by slowly. Serenity stayed inside the whole time, working on her Monster Square. She tried to make it smaller, so that she would eventually be able to take it with her, if she needed it.  
  
On Sunday afternoon, a victory cry sounded trough the apartment. [Guys, come over here!] Serenity called them. [Quick! I want you to see this!]  
  
They both came into the room. {What's up, Seren?} DarkMG asked.  
  
[This!] They saw Serenity holding up something exactly the form of a Duel Monster card. This was thicker than one, though. It was almost of the same thickness as twenty of them, looking somewhat like a wallet as Serenity opened it and it split into two parts, which were still holding on to each other. [You'll be right back,] she told them happily as she pulled their cards out of her Monster Square, immediately putting them back into the wallet-like thing.  
  
Indeed, the two Monsters appeared in front of her again. {It feels... different,} DarkMG told her.  
  
Serenity closed the thing and put it inside her pocket. [It should! If everything went as I wanted it to, you're more real as ever now. And I know a way to test it,] she said, looking at DarkMG now.  
  
{What?} DarkMG asked a little unsure.  
  
[We're going to look if you fit in my clothes,] Serenity answered happily, walking over to her wardrobe.  
  
{{Ok,}} Kuri said, grinning. Serenity opened the door. Both of the Monsters were watching, one exited and the other doubtfully, when Serenity's head shot up.  
  
[Hide!] she called as she opened the door widely. They ducked into the wardrobe just in time to avoid being seen by the person entering the room; Serenity's father.  
  
But he didn't seem mad or angered at all now. He just seemed serious. "Serenity," he started. "I need to tell you something. At this business trip, I met someone who was pretty interested in working with me. I accepted his offer, but it does mean I will be away very much the next couple of weeks. You'll be at home alone a lot. I do want it to be clean if I return, no matter when that is, remember that. Now I'll be leaving. I just came by to tell you this and pick up some stuff."  
  
His voice was harsh. "Yes father," Serenity answered.  
  
Her father walked at the door, and Serenity was cheering inside. Then, he spun around swiftly, grabbing her cheek in his hand. She winced, because it hurt very much. "And don't you ever, ever dare tell anyone."  
  
"N...no, father." He smirked and then left, leaving Serenity alone. She stumbled over to her bed, and sat on it. Her friends came out of the wardrobe, looking at her with worried faces.  
  
[It's ok, guys. I think I'm going to have some very nice weeks,] she said, a certain light burning in her eyes which hadn't been there for a very long time.  
  
The next few weeks flew by. Serenity's life finally went fine. She had just told Yami, the next time they met, she wasn't lying, and though he still didn't buy it, he let it pass as Serenity seemed to be doing just fine.  
  
Kaiba was completely avoiding and ignoring her. They both hated it, but on the other side, they both liked it either. No strange thoughts or feelings, and not being reminded of each other that much either.  
  
After one week, Serenity went to school with hardly any body paint on. There were no new bruises or scratches. Still, she had to hide the scars.  
  
Her father was barely ever at home, most of the time working. She was relieved. She hadn't been beaten for a while now. The house was always clean if he came around, which wasn't often at all.  
  
Serenity was happy now. At the moment, she was the innocent, carefree teen she should have been always, with no worries at all. Her grades were perfect, her friends were incredibly kind to her and she had no abusive father to worry about.  
  
She hadn't noticed her friends were extra happy hen she was around. They had all agreed in doing that, all of them noticing Serenity's change. She just seemed so carefree, and neither one of them wanted to ruin that.  
  
Unbeknownst to Serenity or anyone else, something seemed to be brewing...  
  
"Good afternoon everybody!" Serenity screamed as she ran out of the school building. "Had a nice day everyone?"  
  
They all smiled as they saw the happy girl running up to them. "Yes, and you look like you have too!" Yugi called back. "Hey Serenity, would you like to come to the Game shop with us, to hang around a little."  
  
"I'd love it. Let's go and get there then," Serenity said, causing all of them to burst out in laughter. "What's up?" she asked them innocently.  
  
"It's nothing, little sis, but you were so enthusiastic, it was just funny," Joey replied.  
  
Just then, someone else came running up to them. "Hey there, wait for me!" As they turned around, they saw Mokuba catching up with them.  
  
"Hi there, Mokuba. What's up?" Yugi asked the ebony-haired boy.  
  
"Uhm, well..." Mokuba seemed to hesitate a little. "I'd like to ask you something. You see, Seto has this business meeting this afternoon, and of course I can't go with him, so I'd like to ask if I could... maybe... hang out with you guys this afternoon. Seto would come and pick me up as soon as he's ready."  
  
They all started to laugh as Mokuba put on his puppy dog face. "Don't worry, Mokuba," Tea laughed. "You can come with us already. We were planning on hanging around in Yugi's grandfather's shop."  
  
"Cool! Thank you all!"  
  
"No thanks, Mokuba. You're our friend, remember?" Tristan pointed out.  
  
They started walking to the game shop, and Mokuba ended up besides Serenity. "Hey Serenity! Long time not seen, huh?" he started. "So, how have you been doing lately?"  
  
"I'm just fine, thank you, Mokuba. And how are you?"  
  
"Fine too. Hey, have you heard about that game..." They talked all along the way, both getting along great with each other.  
  
"Hey you guys. Did you two notice you almost walked past the shop?" Mai's voice interrupted their conversation.  
  
"Oops... I guess we didn't notice," Serenity giggled slightly.  
  
They all got inside, as they decided on what to do now. They agreed to watch a movie first, and then look around inside the shop a little.  
  
Yugi's grandfather entered the room where they were watching the movie. It was just finished, so Yugi turned around. "What's up?" he asked.  
  
"There's someone here to see Serenity," the old man answered. "Some boy who says she owes him a rematch."  
  
"Oh, ok, thank you mr Motou," Serenity answered. "I'll be right there."  
  
"What's this all about?" Joey asked his sister, but then remembered what had happened a few weeks ago. "Oh yeah, I remember. I do want to see you Duel, Seren."  
  
"Fine by me," Serenity stated as she walked into the shop, followed by all of her friends.  
  
"You don't mind if we have some company, do you?" she asked the challenger.  
  
"No, that's fine by me. I just want to win this time. And according to the original rules this time, please."  
  
"What? The only thing I change is that you can pick the card you win yourself, instead of just taking the rarest. If you'd win, you can always just pick my rarest. But if it doesn't fit into your deck, you can also pick another one you like better. What's so bad about that"  
  
"Nothing, really. I don't know why I even bothered. Let's just start this, ok?"  
  
They put the Duel Discs around their arms. "Ok, it's time to duel!"  
  
"I'm sorry to say, but my Dark Magician Girl beats your Monster, which leaves you with 1000 life points."  
  
"That's still 300 life points more than you."  
  
Serenity now had Dark Magician Girl, Kuriboh and his old Koumori Dragon on the field, while the other Duellist had one Gemini Elf and his Tri-Horned Dragon lying. Serenity had two closed cards, but the other had one.  
  
As usual, they ignored the ringing of the shop's doorbell, showing someone had entered. They had gathered quite a big audience now. The person who had just entered was paid no attention. 'Where is everybody, and where is my brother?'  
  
Then he saw the great amount of people standing around... something. He walked over there and saw there was a Duel going on. Because he was so tall, he could easily see it. He gasped slightly when he saw who was Duelling; Wheeler's sister. Things didn't look good for her, and her opponent just attacked her with his Tri-Horned Dragon.  
  
"This means your Koumori Dragon is out. And since it hasn't got enough attack, I destroyed all of your life points."  
  
"I wouldn't cheer this early! I reveal two of my closed cards, both Reinforcements. This does mean my Koumori Dragon is out, but I'm not. I've got 350 life points left," Serenity said.  
  
"You're not out this turn, but you will be next time. Now, it's your turn."  
  
Things were really looking hopeless for Serenity. Still, she started to smirk. "You're going to wish you had never said those three words. I draw a card. Now, I'll play Just Desserts on you, and you have two Monsters, which means you'll lose 1000 life points; your exact amount of life points."  
  
"Not so fast," he said, smirking. "I play Remove Trap, so now, your trap card isn't working! Now what are you going to do?"  
  
His triumphant smirk was just answered by a slight smile of Serenity. "I'm going to beat you... You have just played your only closed card, which means I have none to fear now, as I play my last closed card. I'll play Stop Defence on your Gemini Elf, so it's in attack mode now."  
  
The boy started to look as if he was in a very tight spot. He was. "If I attack your Gemini Elf with my Dark Magician Girl now, it's out, and so are you!"  
  
Dark Magician Girl's 2000 attack points beat the 900 of Gemini Elf, which was also the boy's end.  
  
"Yay," Joey cheered. "That's the sixth one in a row, Seren! I never knew you were this good."  
  
A rosy blush accented Serenity's cheeks. "It's not that hard," she said.  
  
"Now, which one of my cards do you want?" the boy asked.  
  
Serenity looked as if she was thinking, which she was. "You don't seem to like your Feral Imp a lot, do you?"  
  
"No, I hate the card. But I put every card I have in my deck, so it's in it too."  
  
Serenity smiled at him. "Then I'll take it from you."  
  
The boy sighed in relief, while some of the people standing by gasped and said things like: "It's a weak card," and "Why pick that card if you can get his Tri-Horned Dragon?"  
  
Serenity didn't bother and picked the card from the boy's hand. Kaiba was pretty surprised as well. As the other people left the shop, he was thinking. From what he had seen of the boy's deck, he seemed to have pretty good cards, and he was not only surprised by the card she took. How had she ever managed to beat him in a Duel?  
  
He got the answer when he walked over to his brother, who was talking to Serenity.  
  
"Hey Seren, how did you manage to beat those guys? I mean, they were all pretty good."  
  
Serenity smiled as she explained. "Those guys didn't seem to think their Monsters could feel any emotions. If you know they do, you only have to watch for a second before you see what a monster can and can't do. Also, you have to know your Deck pretty good."  
  
"But Serenity, why did you pick his Feral Imp. It's almost his weakest card," Mokuba questioned.  
  
"As I just told you, they have emotions. Feral Imp wasn't at all happy with him. I noticed, so I took Feral Imp. It's going to be happy to be with someone else now, and it will be thankful I took it away. Also, the losing duellist won't be the least angry at me; he didn't like the card anyways, so why bother if I took it away after a fair Duel?"  
  
"Could you teach me how to Duel?"  
  
"Mokuba, you have a big brother who is one of the best in the world! Why would you want me to..." Serenity had just noticed Kaiba listening in.  
  
"I came to pick up Mokuba," he stated coldly.  
  
"Big brother!" Mokuba started to hug him. "How was your afternoon?"  
  
"Fine. Can we go now, I don't like being near these pieces of garbage," he said, referring to Yugi and his friends.  
  
Mokuba, who stood close to Serenity, whispered quietly: "Sorry, I have no idea what's gotten into him. Usually, he isn't like this."  
  
"It doesn't matter," Serenity whispered back. "Probably, something went wrong at the meeting or something."  
  
In fact, it wasn't the meeting that annoyed him. He had avoided Serenity for a while now, but the fact his brother seemed to like her very much made him being unable to avoid her all the time. He hated talking to her. He always seemed to have the urge to let his guard down in her presence, and he never did that.  
  
Angrily, he walked out of the shop, Mokuba following close behind, leaving a very confused, and even sad Serenity.  
  
"Oh my..." Joey said. "It's already pretty late. I guess I'll go home now."  
  
The others agreed, all greeting each other and telling each other they'd see each other there again next morning.  
  
As Serenity walked home, or rather said, ran home, she was very happy. She had shown her brother she could Duel, and he even said she was good. She doubted that a little, taking it as a compliment to make her feel better.  
  
At home, she started making dinner for herself. After having eaten, she went to her room to make some homework.  
  
She was already busy for a while when she heard the door to the apartment open. She didn't know who it could be. The only one besides her who had a key was her father. But he shouldn't be home this early. This couldn't be good.  
  
She flinched as she heard the door slam closed, and she knew this wasn't good. No, this wasn't good at all...  
  
Lass: I hope you all liked this. Everybody please review! 


	9. Beginning but not yet ending

Lass: Thank you for your many reviews, anyone! I always try to answer questions of reviewers in my story. I hope I did a good job. Mokuba, who is usually here too, has fallen ill and Serenity is nursing him, so... Oh yeah, I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but the plot of this story is completely mine and I have the right to call this laptop mine too, so please don't try to steal it... Now, on with the story!  
  
Serenity was shivering. 'What could've happened? He shouldn't be home yet!'  
  
She heard hard footsteps coming upstairs. She easily recognized them as her father's, and she was desperately looking around, trying to find something to hide. 'Oh no!' her mind screamed.  
  
BANG! Her door was slammed open, leaving Serenity sitting on her bed, frozen in fear. Indeed, in the opening of her door, she saw her father. She could smell the alcohol hanging around him, telling her he had been drinking.  
  
Afraid, though curious, she asked him the question with a very thin voice. "W... what happened, father?"  
  
His piercing eyes were looking into her frightened stare, bloodshot and clearly raging, fuming. "What happened?!" he screamed. "I got fired! That's what happened!"  
  
"W... what are you going to do now?" Serenity asked, though frightened.  
  
Instead of answering her question, he walked to her in two big steps. "No... Please, not again," she whimpered. "Please, don't start again. It went so well..." But her father didn't hear her anymore.  
  
Madness seemed to have got a hold of him, and it wasn't planning on releasing anytime anymore. "It's just your fault! Everything is just your fault!" he yelled, while grabbing her arm. Her last bruises were just healed, and her skin was almost normal again now.  
  
But it seemed like he had to catch up on things, when he threw her across the room, making her slam against the wall. "No... Not again... Please..." Serenity kept whimpering, though knowing it wouldn't help.  
  
Once again thrown through the room, she came down next to the door. She immediately ran out, running through the living room. As she heard her father coming inside too, she got into the room which was the closest by; the bathroom. She pulled the door closed, but before she could lock it, it was flung open by her father.  
  
He grabbed at her hair while she was screaming in pain. Putting his sweaty hand in front of her mouth and nose, he quieted her. "Don't you dare scream," he hissed in her ear. He then threw her across the bathroom, making her hit the mirror on the wall. It shattered in a thousand pieces. Serenity picked up a piece and, as her father attacked her again, she threw it to him. It hit his arm, getting her nowhere but getting her father even more pissed off.  
  
He grabbed her wrist and threw her down, into the pieces of shattered glass. Tears were now streaming down her cheeks, merging with the fresh blood that was there. It had started again...  
  
Every time he hit her, the pain became vaguer. Finally, everything went back as Serenity passed out, running once again for the cruelty of her father.  
  
Kaiba felt restless as he and Mokuba came home, Mokuba babbling happily about the movie they had watched that afternoon. They just came from some restaurant where they had eaten dinner.  
  
A maid came. "Master Mokuba, you have to go to bed. It's way past your bedtime, and you have school tomorrow."  
  
"I'm coming, Maria. G'night, Seto!" he cried happily as he followed the maid upstairs.  
  
He still felt... wrong. Something wasn't right. When he sat down behind his laptop to work, words wouldn't come to his mind. He slammed the keys of the machine. "What the hell is going on!?" he screamed, extremely pissed off.  
  
All of his maids and servants knew not to enter his room now, unless they wanted to be fired. They heard the oldest Kaiba slamming his fist into the wall.  
  
"Damn!" Slightly calmed now, Kaiba sat down, panting. 'What's this? I can't even get a word on my paper! What the heck is keeping me from work? I need to find out. But how?'  
  
'Maybe,' he thought sarcastically, 'I should get some sleep. I haven't slept very well lately, and I can't work at the moment anyways. My head will be clearer tomorrow.'  
  
And, as Kaiba went to bed, the restlessness faded until it was nothing more than just some ignoring feeling in the back of his head. At first, he had a nightmare, where he was standing in darkness, while hearing a frightened girl scream, but being unable to see anything or move. After a while, though, it changed into a more peaceful dream, where he was just a kid, playing with his little brother, unaware of the pain of the world...  
  
The next morning, the air was clouded and grey, but when Kaiba woke up, he was surprisingly well-rested. 'I haven't slept this well for a long time. I should do this more often.' He even sounded surprised.  
  
"Good morning, big brother!" Mokuba dashed into his room. "You slept?" Kaiba chuckled at this. "What? You haven't slept for a long time. At least, not in your bed."  
  
"I've slept great, Mokuba," Kaiba said, deciding to forget about the first part of his dream. It was about that strange girl that was screaming for help, and him being unable to fulfil her request. He had gotten frustrated, desperate. He had no idea, though, there was some strange, blond girl flowing outside his mansion, who was now landing on the ground. It was DarkMG...  
  
{At least he knows how we feel if we're inside our cards, or the closet, or just away, now, Kuri. I'll go to his office this afternoon to talk to him. Or whatever...}  
  
They had locked off this talk from Serenity's mind. They were freed by Serenity now. Well, practically. Their cards were inside the strange thing Serenity used to call the Monstriary (A/N: A combination of Monster and diary, what it looked like). They had indeed tried to get DarkMG into Serenity's clothes. It worked, and it didn't look that bad either. They had used some of the body paint of Serenity to cover up DarkMG's unnaturally red cheeks and she was now looking just like a normal girl. She had walked on the street a lot lately. There was only one problem to her so-called 'humanity'. She still couldn't talk, except for inside her mind, with Serenity and Kuri.  
  
Unbeknownst to Serenity, DarkMG and Kuri had already known the guy would eventually come back and continue his beatings. They had tried looking for a solution, and finally found one.  
  
Serenity had never been able to block them from coming into her mind and she didn't ever want it anyway, so they sometimes sneaked in. They had noticed some strange thoughts about some guy, who she secretly seemed to have some crush for. Just for fun, they had gone here because of that about a week ago. They thought he might make Serenity happier if her father returned. What they found surprised them both.  
  
Just the fact they couldn't talk didn't mean they could not sneak into someone's mind. They were, though, unable to leave real words there like they could with Serenity. That was probably because the bond they shared was so strong. At the beginning, talking had been hard, but they had quickly become better. Now, it was some of like just talking. Better, to be honest. They could also send pictures to each other.  
  
When they had gotten into this guy Kaiba's mind, they found out he seemed to like Serenity too, even if it was just a little. But, more importantly, they had also found some very shocking memories of his past. They had followed his whole life story, from the moment his mother died by giving birth to Mokuba, then his father dying out of grief, the orphanage and then Gozaburo Kaiba. They had been shocked to discover he had been trough almost the same as Serenity. His stepfather hit him if he didn't study enough. When the jerk took it out on Mokuba, they had discovered, Kaiba got rid of him once and for all. They realized Seto Kaiba would probably understand it, being trough the same.  
  
When they noticed yesterday, while they were away, Serenity's state of mind; shocked, they quickly found out what was happening and went here. DarkMG, though trying to be as 'human' as she could, had now used her magic to get Kaiba as far as to get to sleep. She had then managed to enter this memory of hers into his dream. It had been hard. Getting him to sleep had already been hard, knowing he almost never slept and she wasn't used to do something with his mind, and entering his dream to get this in had been even harder. Without Kuri, she wouldn't have managed to do it, but luckily, the little Monster appeared to have more power then she had eventually thought. After that, she had used some of her powers to get the happy memories back into his dreaming state.  
  
{{Yes, we did a nice job on this. And, he remembers the dream,}} Kuri cheerily answered.  
  
Suddenly, he heard a shriek inside his mind. {Are you mad?!}  
  
{{DarkMG, what's going on? What's happening?}} Kuri asked, shocked.  
  
{She went to school! Serenity went to school! She has turned completely mad! She can barely walk; she almost bled to death yesterday evening! And now she's going to school!} She had blocked this tirade from Serenity's mind, but nevertheless, a tired voice answered.  
  
[I know you are mad, DarkMG, and I know you have just told Kuri in a probably very angry, screaming way, but I need to. If I don't go to school, just the day after my father came home, they'll find out.]  
  
{Why don't you let them? They'd help you out. I bet one...}  
  
[No,] Serenity interrupted. [I'm too much of a burden for them anyway.]  
  
{What the... What do you mean, Seren?} DarkMG was very alarmed now.  
  
[I've never done anything useful to them. They all save people in their adventures, win Duels for their friends and are always nice and kind. I'm nothing but a burden. I always get into trouble, needing people to save me, hanging around them and making them worried by making a fool of myself and messing everything up. This is just justified punishment, and I won't ask help at this, bothering everyone.]  
  
{Serenity! Serenity?} DarkMG was unable to reach the girl. {Kuri, she managed to lock off her mind completely! What will we do now?}  
  
{{Watch it!}} Kuri yelled, but not in time.  
  
"Hey! What are you doing there, girl? Don't you know this is a restricted area? How did you manage to get in anyway?" a voice behind DarkMG asked her. As she swiftly turned around, she saw two boys standing there. One tall brunette who was looking at her with piercing eyes and one younger one, almost hidden behind the back of the older one, with ebony hair and big, questioning eyes.  
  
{Kuri, it is Kaiba and Mokuba! What do I have to do now?} she asked desperately.  
  
"What? Cat got your tongue? I asked you a question."  
  
DarkMG had already prepared for the talk she had wanted to do this afternoon, so she grabbed her chalkboard. I'm sorry, I can't talk, she scribbled down quickly.  
  
"Fine, then write your answer on that chalkboard, and hurry it up. I don't wish to be late at school," he said, not bothering to apologize about his rude remarks.  
  
I'd really wish I could talk at moments like this. I'd really like to have some nice discussion with you about your manners. She could write very quickly, thanks to her magic. As she wiped the words away after she had shown them to Kaiba, he pulled up an eyebrow questioning. But there's no time for this pretty talk. I was here to talk to you. I planned on doing that in the afternoon, but I just noticed I'm in a real hurry.   
  
"Do you have anything to do today?" Kaiba asked.  
  
No, I don't. But... Then, Kaiba interrupted.  
  
"Just stop writing, would you. I'll come back this afternoon to talk to you about this thing. I need to go to school now, and you'd better be happy I'll talk to you. I'd like to know how you came in at least. My security is the best. Maria!"  
  
The maid came walking to them. "What's the matter, Master Kaiba? Oh, who's this girl?" she asked, looking at DarkMG curiously.  
  
"Look after her today. She can't talk. I'll be back this afternoon to talk to her." The maid nodded at the order of her Master. She took DarkMG at her arm.  
  
"Come in, I'll just show you around."  
  
DarkMG was still very worried. She could vaguely sense Serenity was very weak, but she had locked off her mind, making it unable for DarkMG to talk to her. {Kuri, can you talk to her?}  
  
{{She completely locked off her mind, to both of us. There's nothing we can do about it. I hate to have to say that, though,}} Kuri sounded as if he was about to start crying. He had reasons enough for it now. Their mind link didn't only make it possible for them to support her mentally, by talking to her encouraging, but it also made it possible to lend their own strength to her. Both couldn't be done now, what made Serenity very weak. 'But,' they both thought at the same time, 'she seemed pretty determined today. So she might just be able to make it.'  
  
Kaiba was looking as Maria walked away with the strange girl, stepping into his limousine, next to his little brother. He found her really interesting, but not as in love or something. As he had walked out of the house with Mokuba he saw her standing there, tense and seemingly somewhere else. She seemed more like something that didn't exist. When he had called for her, she proved to be real by turning around. But still something inhuman-like was over her, and it did not go away. And then she had wanted to talk to him about something urgently, it became even more tempting to stay and talk. But he really needed to go to school. He would talk to her this afternoon, and find out what was going on...  
  
Serenity knew very well DarkMG and Kuri were hiding something from her and, even though they did not know, she had felt them going trough her head. But now, she locked them out, immediately feeling her power withdraw. But she really meant what she had said to them just moments ago. She would do this, put on her good old cheery mask she hadn't worn for weeks now.  
  
She had very well known this wouldn't stay as perfect as this, and she had made some sort of study of her happy behaviour. Therefore, her mask was now better than ever, and only someone who was looking very closely and very well would be able to see what she was really feeling like. And because of the past few weeks, that kind of people weren't watching closely enough anymore.  
  
Walking to school with her friends happily, Serenity still felt like a complete outcast. She shrugged it off as she was talking, or better call it whispering, to Mai. "Come on Mai, I know Joey likes you. I'm his little sister, I should know."  
  
"But what if he refuses? What if he turns me down?"  
  
"Mai, please... I know he likes you a lot. He probably even loves you. I bet he wouldn't turn you down. Haven't you ever noticed the way he looks at you? No..." she whispered forcefully when she saw Mai was about to interrupt. "I'm not ready talking yet. Even if, and that's a big if, Mai, very big, he refuses to go with you, it'd be his fault for turning you down, and it won't be just missing a date with a fantastic girl like you, Mai. I'd hunt him for the rest of his life, telling him all about how great you are, and how much of a great chance he missed when he refused to go out on a date with you. Now go and ask him, before we are at school."  
  
"Oh..." Mai said, still a little unsure. "But he's still talking to Yugi, so..." Serenity grinned at the behaviour of her friend. She gave Mai a sly smile before turning to Joey and Yugi.  
  
"Hey, Yugi, can I talk to you for a moment? Mai can talk to Joey so he won't be bored."  
  
Yugi came walking to them, but Mai was still standing. Serenity gave her a push in Joey's direction. "Go for it, Harpy! You rule," she said while blinking at Mai. The blond girl was unable to crawl back now, so she gave Serenity a face and started walking to Joey.  
  
"Seren, what's going on?" Yugi asked innocently.  
  
"It's going to happen..." Serenity said while looking at Joey and Mai.  
  
"What? Oh..." He fell quiet all of a sudden. "Do you think he will agree?"  
  
"Agree? Agree? He'll be dancing with joy! I know my brother and..."  
  
Suddenly they were interrupted by a cry. When they looked at where it was coming from, they smiled. Joey was dancing around Mai, yelling "of course I will, of course I will" all the time. Mai had a huge smile on her face, and the rest was standing by, also smiling and telling each other they 'had already known this was going to happen someday'.  
  
"Well, you know your brother indeed," Yugi said, smiling. "I don't think anything can ruin his day now."  
  
His words were soon put to test, because, as they were walking to the front of the school, a big limousine pulled up behind them, almost driving Joey off his feet. Everyone was looking in fear of what was going to happen now.  
  
As Kaiba stepped out of it, everyone gasped in shock at what happened now. "Good morning, Kaiba. Isn't this a wonderful day?" Joey called before running into the school, going to tell all of his classmates about his date with Mai.  
  
Kaiba was looking as if he was just hit by lightning. 'The mutt said good morning to me?' He now looked at all of the mutt's friends. They seemed shocked, but their expressions turned into happy ones very soon. "What's this all about?" he asked, wishing an explanation of Wheeler's strange behaviour. Before he got an answer, Mai ran into the school after her, which Kaiba didn't know, boyfriend.  
  
Yugi giggled as he explained it to Kaiba, the rest being all busy shaking the hand of Wheeler's sister. "Serenity got Mai to ask Joey on a date," he told Kaiba, who soon got it. Joey and Mai were completely crazy about each other, everyone could see, but they were both too shy to ask the other for a date. It had finally happened now.  
  
'Drop'  
  
Some raindrop dared to fall out of the sky, predicting much more were to fall out. The ones who were still standing outside ran in now, going to their classes for another boring day of work.  
  
'Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba corp., richest teen in Japan, most wanted single, sitting in some stupid math class boring his ass of while he could've been working on a new Duel Disc or inventing something completely new or could've been winning a Duel now; yep, that would be me,' Kaiba thought, bored. He knew anything about maths anyway, so sitting here was completely boring him out of his mind. They still had two classes after this one. 'Shit, this happened last night, too,' he thought, while becoming drowsy.  
  
'Well, maybe a little sleep wouldn't hurt,' he thought, knowing he didn't have a choice anyway. Then, he entered the dream world, drowning the monotone voice of the teacher away.  
  
It was completely black, all around him. He couldn't do anything, just listening. Then, the voices came.  
  
"You should be at home in time! I told you so! If you don't, I'll have to punish you, dirty little bitch!"  
  
Another voice came, the same he had heard last night. "No father, please! I was away with..." She got interrupted when a slap sounded trough... Wherever he was.  
  
"I don't need your stupid excuses! I don't need any of them!" More slaps sounded, while the girl was pleading her father to stop. Because of his history, Kaiba knew the sound of some belt hitting flesh.  
  
"No, father, no! Somebody please help! No!" The screaming got louder, and Kaiba wanted to help desperately, but he couldn't get out of this space. Then, it stopped. The sound of some door slamming close was the only thing to be heard.  
  
Kaiba shot up. 'What was that?'  
  
"Hey, Kaiba, are you awake again?" Yugi whispered from besides him. When Kaiba woke up a little bit more, he heard the teacher going on about some stupid stuff, while the rest of the class was just messing around a bit. They had this part a thousand times already.  
  
"I guess I am," Kaiba grunted. He was still thinking about these dreams. He had one of them last night and now again. 'What was that about? Why do I have these dreams?' It weren't memories he knew. There was a girl in it, and he was no girl. But she did sound kind of familiar. He couldn't get it right, though.  
  
A knock on the classroom door made him a little more alert. The principal entered and walked over to their teacher's desk. "Everyone, please listen," he said. Everyone broke off their conversations as they turned to look at him. "I have some very special news. Due to an emergency gathering of the teachers, you are free now!" Everyone cheered at him, jumping from their seats and starting to pack their stuff. The teacher and the principal walked out of the classroom.  
  
Even Kaiba was happy. Now, he could talk to the mysterious girl and find out some things about her and her 'important message'. He strode out of the school to his limo, which was, of course, waiting for him outside. He was glad it had stopped raining, though, if you watched the clouds, you could tell it wouldn't be for long. He stepped into the great car. "Kaiba mansion, and hurry," he commended, sitting back into the comfortable seats.  
  
Kaiba was not the only one who was glad it had stopped raining. Serenity didn't want to be out in the rain, so she told the others, who were just relaxing and taking it slow, she had gotten a surprising amount of homework to do, and that she had to head home. Truth was there was hardly any homework to do.  
  
She had barely managed to keep it up today. She was really depending on the strength of DarkMG and Kuri, for whom she still had her mind blocked. She didn't want to bother them any more.  
  
Really tired she arrived at home, just when it started raining again. She stumbled inside, dropping her bag and falling down on the couch. Then, she heard it. Her father's footsteps coming...  
  
Lass: Ay... This isn't going to be pretty. Well, review and I'll post the next chapter as soon as possible. Bye! 


	10. Love and hate so close together

Lass: Hi there! (I always seem to start with that, don't I?) I'm sorry for taking a few days to update; it's just that I've been busy past few days. My school grades are kind of dropping, and I really have to work on them. I also didn't really get further, but hey; here's another chapter! Please, read it!  
  
The footsteps were coming closer. Serenity, after years of hearing them, could tell her father was very, very drunk. Serenity wanted to, but she wasn't able to get up and run. She just laid there, on the couch, listening tensely to her father's footsteps coming closer.  
  
Much too soon, he had reached her. He grabbed her at her arm and pulled her up. "What are you doing home this early?!" he screamed at her.  
  
"My school was out earlier, so we could go home," she explained warily, trying not to cry at the pain of his strong hands gripping her even tighter.  
  
"Bullshit! You're just a piece of bullshit! You're worth nothing, you dirty little whore!" She couldn't escape from his hands or his belt, still very weak because of last night. He kept beating her, kept throwing insults at her, even after she passed out.  
  
Kaiba was stuck in a traffic jam, and a quite big one either, 'Shit,' he cursed. 'Why today? Why do I have to get stuck in a traffic jam today? Oh no...' The drowsiness came again, pulling him into a deep sleep.  
  
It was all black again. He was unable to move, again. And he heard a door open, again.  
  
"Where were you?! What have you done?! You were supposed to be home at seven, and it's seven thirty now! Again, where were you?!" The words were accompanied by various slaps.  
  
"I..."  
  
"Just shut up! You're probably going to say you were with your friends again! I won't take this any more!" As the girl let out a painful scream, Kaiba tried even harder to get out of there and help the girl, but no avail.  
  
"Stop screaming! You have nothing to scream about! You're just a worthless piece of shit, nothing but a burden to everyone. This is only justified! At least show you're still worth anything by not whimpering every time I hit you!" The screams of the girl now died, though sometimes, she still let out a soft cry of pain. Finally, that stopped too, leaving nothing but a deep silence after the strange guy had slammed the door closed.  
  
He shot up once again. "What time is it?" he asked the driver sternly. He gasped when the driver told him they were inside this traffic jam for two hours now. Rain was pouring down quickly. The storm had caused the jam to grow even bigger, and because Kaiba's mansion was on the complete opposite of the city, this was taking a very long time.  
  
After another hour, in which Kaiba was typing away on his laptop, the driver finally told him they had arrived at his mansion. Kaiba sighed in relief. He could go and talk to the strange girl now.  
  
He practically ran into his mansion. In fact, he just took wide steps, but anyways... Maria came running up to him, Mokuba just behind her. "Master," she breathed, seemingly out of breath. "She's gone."  
  
"What? What are you talking about, Maria?" he asked, irritated.  
  
"Your guest, Master; she left an hour ago, leaving her chalkboard behind." The poor maid handed it to her Master, looking very worried. She wondered if he was going to fire her now.  
  
Kaiba looked at the board. Sorry, have to leave. I'm really in a hurry. Remember your dreams, Seto? He looked at the board questioningly now. That was not only about the question, but at how she called him too. 'How dare she call me Seto? Only Mokuba can. And how can she possibly know about those stupid dreams?  
  
My question was about that. I need help with such a case. That case, to be exact. Think about it and know what you want to do when you go to sleep. Leave this board on a table. Oh yeah, you've got a great little brother. You can be proud of him! He stared at the words. He didn't know what this was about. He shook his head, but then he looked up at Maria.  
  
"Why did you let her go?" he asked her growling.  
  
"I'm sorry Master," she said, surprisingly calm. "We were sitting in the room, when suddenly her head shot up and her eyes got distant. She then scribbled this down and left."  
  
Kaiba cursed. Then, he walked up the stairs, the way he walked showing he didn't want to be disturbed. He spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about this. To help some abused girl. He was weighing the pros and cons against each other. After a while, he came to the conclusion he wasn't going to help. He was a CEO, a powerful man without any emotions to anyone but his brother Mokuba. If he would help the girl, he could just as well help anyone. 'She should help herself, just as I have once done. Just a little bit of mystery won't get me as far as to help someone.'  
  
Just as he had concluded this, a maid knocked his door. "Will you come down to eat, Master?" she asked. Kaiba thought about it a little.  
  
"I will be down in just a minute," he said. He heard the maid leave and, stretching himself, got up from his chair.  
  
He ate without really paying attention. He was really tired, but he knew this was what had happened more the past few days. Something wanted him to sleep again. He hated to admit, but there was nothing he could do against it. Therefore, he went up directly after dinner. He put the chalkboard down on his bedside table and plopped in his bed, immediately falling asleep and once again entering the dream world.  
  
He had just gotten into his 'cage'. He knew it was the truth, but he didn't know how he knew it. This one was different, though. He was able to move... kind of. When he tried to move, he couldn't, but he did feel there was space around him with his body. Now he watched it, for as far as he could in this dark room, it wasn't his body! It was a girl's body. He recognised the shape of it as that from the girl who had come to his mansion. But what was he doing here?  
  
He heard someone enter the room. (A/N: Don't ask how he knows. It is DarkMG's memories, so he probably picks up on some thoughts.) "Um... Hi dad..." he heard the girl say. He knew her voice, but it was too soft to really hear it well.  
  
"You dirty little bitch! You were supposed to have the food finished by now! So, where is it!?" the angry voice of the man shouted.  
  
"I'm so sorry, father. I didn't..." She was roughly interrupted by the man.  
  
"And you will never again, do you hear me!?" It wasn't Kaiba's thought that occurred now. {{She would hardly not be able hear it if you scream like that, you jerk!}} For some reason, Kaiba also knew it wasn't the thought of the girl on whose body he was now either. The next one, though, was.  
  
{Calm down, Kuri! It's not going to help her if you scream like that. You'd better just support her.} Kaiba once again knew this was some kind of mind conversation between the two, and that he was now witnessing it.  
  
{{Why won't she just let us help her?}} the first one said again, the one called Kuri. On the background, the beating was heard. But he knew there was nothing he could do.  
  
{She's frightened to death, Kuri. You know that! We can barely do anything, except for hoping he'll end it soon, or until she'll do something about this herself. We're doing all we can do now, taking care of her and supporting her.}  
  
Kuri's next words felt very sad. {{I know, DarkMG, but I just can't stand it...}}  
  
On the background, the beating had stopped and, after the now familiar slamming door, there was nothing but an eerie silence. Then, a third mind voice was heard. [Guys? Are you ok?]  
  
The person Kaiba was 'inside', the girl strangely called DarkMG, sighed. {Are we alright? You were just beat to pulp and you ask us if we're alright? We should ask you that question.}  
  
[I don't know. I just feel so useless. I can't do anything right it seems. I just feel like a burden to anyone, always having to ask for help. I'm just so tired of it. If I would kill myself, would anyone miss me at all?] This shocked both Kaiba as his hostess.  
  
The strange thing was that the first word of the next sentence was not audible for Kaiba. He knew it was there, but he didn't know what the word was. Of course it was Serenity's name. DarkMG just didn't want for Kaiba to know this yet. {..., how can you possibly think that? Of course people would miss you! You do know, don't you?}  
  
[Yes, I do. It's just, sometimes things get too much. I just can't take this any more. The guy makes me think nobody cares for me, that I'm just a worthless piece of shit. Even less, if he can...]  
  
{Please, don't give up. Kuri and I will help you as much as we can. We'll find something together. Just don't give up...}  
  
Kaiba shot up in his bed. He was breathing heavily. Then, his eye fell onto the chalkboard that was besides his bed. As he looked at the first word, he noticed another text was written on it. His eyes widened. This DarkMG had to have been inside his room! He grabbed it, eager for an explanation.  
  
Hi there, Seto. Had a nice dream? I take it you haven't. You know my name now. Before I start explaining anything, I'd like you to know that everything written on this is the truth. You probably won't believe it though, and think I'm completely crazy. Go ahead, if you want... The dream you just had was one of my memories, just like the other ones you had. I noticed you decided not to help. I must say I'm a little disappointed in you for choosing that, but on the other side, I understand. Pretty much anyway. I thought the dreams you had would make you think otherwise, but apparently, they didn't. It's too late for your help anyways, I believe. She locked her mind off this morning and got pretty beat up this afternoon again. I think she's walking to her downfall very quickly now. When I first saw you, I thought you might want to help her, knowing your past. You know how it feels, don't you? Being beat up about every little mistake you make, being yelled at... You had something to live for; your little brother. She hasn't. She hasn't got anything to protect except for herself. And that isn't much, considering she's being brought down every evening, making her think no one cares for her and... You know. I just showed you in the dream. I don't know her exact thoughts anymore, since she blocked me, but she isn't far from doing it anymore. This is all I can do. If I made you change your mind about this, I just want you to know this is all about a girl from your own school. If not, I just want to say I'm sorry for bothering you about this. If it's the case, I hope you'll have a nice rest of your life. And Seto? Try to loosen up a little, would you? I know you're not as cold as you pretend to be...   
  
Reading this had been hard for Kaiba. This girl knew him, better than anyone else. He wasn't so sure about not helping now.  
  
"Big brother, are you ready to go to school?" Mokuba crashed in as Kaiba was putting on his school uniform. He smiled at the young kid.  
  
"Yes, Mokuba, but I would like to have breakfast first," he said.  
  
"I know. I already have it here for you. I'll go and get my stuff and I'll see you at the limousine, Seto!" And he was gone again...  
  
Kaiba was thinking. Some girl at his school, huh? He decided to look at them closely today and see if he could find her. If he could, he would help her. Else, it was just too bad for her. Happy with his decision, he walked to the car. After he got in, he was immediately busy looking at his laptop.  
  
When he got out of the car and walked into the school, he accidentally bumped into someone. "Hey, would you just watch it!" they both called at the same time.  
  
The "You!" was called at the same time too, as Kaiba and Joey both looked at each other. Their stares turned into glares as they were getting ready to argue.  
  
"Come on guys, it was just an accident," Yugi squealed, already seeing a fight come.  
  
Their angry glares at each other didn't stop. Kaiba noticed Joey was with his usual club of friends again. There were the small Yugi, friendship girl Tea, his girlfriend Mai, loyal dogs Tristan and Duke, the shy Ryou and... Serenity. Kaiba had grown to hate his crush on her. But hey, that didn't make it disappear. If it already did something, it only made it worse.  
  
Now, everyone in their group, and Mokuba too, were trying to prevent them from fighting. But no avail. They both attacked at the same time, both ending up punched. The other boys tried to hold the two back, but that didn't work either. Once again they were both hit by each others fist. "Stop it," Serenity called, jumping in between them. Mai and Tea decided to help her, while talking to the two. Serenity was just watching, but her big, pleading eyes did more to the two boys than Tea and Mai's words.  
  
They both growled at each other, turned around and both walked into a different direction. Not that much later, the bell rung and they each went to their separate classes.  
  
Three classes had passed yet. Serenity had forgotten her textbook, so she ran trough the hallway, not expecting anyone else to be there. Of course, there was...  
  
"Ouch," she said as she bumped into someone and fell on the floor.  
  
"Would you just watch where you're going," some voice said from far above her. As she looked up, she saw who it was. Seto Kaiba...  
  
Unbeknownst to Serenity, Kaiba was just as surprised as he saw who bumped into him. The dog's sister!  
  
Serenity got up, but she didn't dare to look up. "I'm sorry, Kaiba. I didn't mean to do that, but I was in a hurry." When she got no answer, she decided to look at him. He was just standing there, watching her.  
  
At that moment, their eyes locked. Icy blue met warm brown.  
  
They were looking into each others eyes, drinking in every small detail. Unbeknownst to them, their faces got closer and closer, until...  
  
Their lips met. Their eyes widened in shock as both immediately pulled away, neither of them willing to admit they liked the kiss.  
  
"I... I'm so sorry," Serenity whispered and then ran away as fast as she could. Kaiba held his had to his lips while staring after her. Had they just kissed? The tingle on his lips seemed to tell him they had.  
  
Kaiba was stunned. He had just kissed Serenity. The dog's sister. A poor girl. His crush...  
  
He snarled at the empty hallway the. Why was he thinking like this? She was just a pathetic little girl. He resumed his way back to his class, refusing to think about it any more...  
  
It was two days later now. That Thursday afternoon, Serenity was lying on her bed. She couldn't forget the fact she kissed Seto Kaiba. She was so confused about it. At first, he didn't seem to mind. He kissed her too. But for the past days, he had been ignoring her completely, and if he looked at her, his eyes seemed to be even colder as when he looked at her brother.  
  
She was very sad about this. But also, her father beat her up harder every time. He was getting worse, drinking more. It was already a miracle she still managed to get to school every day.  
  
She still hadn't let DarkMG or Kuri in her mind again, and she hadn't seen them for days either. A tear slipped out of her eye when she thought about them probably hating her now. 'Well,' she thought. 'At least I'm not bothering them any longer now. They probably got somewhere where they have nice friends, who can do something their selves instead of continually needing help.  
  
She was so deep in thought she didn't hear anything. She only noticed her father was at home when all of a sudden a hand grabbed her throat. Without a word, just looking at her with bloodshot eyes, he threw her against the wall. A head wound which she had gotten yesterday opened again. "Owww..." she said softly. Another slam against the wall was her answer. She struggled to get loose, because she couldn't breathe, but he was way too strong.  
  
He then threw her across the room, getting her to crash into a wall and falling on the floor, unable to get up. She felt a hand grab her from behind then. Her father lifted up her head and looked in her eyes. He then threw her on the floor again, grabbing his belt.  
  
He whipped her with it, leaving even more blood-stained scratches behind. Serenity got weaker quickly, considering she had already lost a lot of blood. Within a small amount of time, she sunk back into the darkness that was already waiting for her, always just a little step away from her...  
  
Her father growled when he noticed the weak girl had already fainted again. 'She becomes weaker every day,' he thought, while he kept hitting her with his belt. (A/N: I know, pretty obvious, isn't it? But hey, if you're that drunk...) He threw her across the room once more, very hard, before leaving to the bar, to drink some more...  
  
Kaiba had those strange dreams every night now. It became really annoying, since it meant he slept more, too. Luckily, he always woke up early, making it possible for him to work at night. The girl he was looking for was nowhere to be found. He looked for her, he really had, but he just couldn't find her.  
  
Then there was also Serenity... He had acted coldly to her these days, if possible even ignore her. He couldn't fall for that low-life girl.  
  
He was only denying he already had fallen. He had fallen deep for this girl called after the peace and tranquillity. He didn't want to like someone. He was cold-hearted, and love was for weaklings.  
  
He shook his head as he went to bed once again, ready to have another one of those dreams; he was feeling drowsy already. 'I will never ever love someone.' With that thought, he entered sleep.  
  
He was in the real jail again. He had no body to move with, not even someone else's. He wasn't able to talk to Kuri here too. This was strange. The past few nights, he had always been inside the closet, in the so-called DarkMG's body.  
  
"How dare you speak to me like that!? Friendship is nothing but an illusion! It's just weaklings clinging onto each other! You have no friends!"  
  
Kaiba was shocked. He really thought he had ended up in one of his own memories, until he heard the girl scream back at her father. "Nonsense! I do have friends, and your talks aren't going to get me away from them!" As her father screamed at her and beat her up, Kaiba wasn't really listening. This girl seemed to be much like him. She, though, did hold on to her friends. He hadn't been able, in the end leaving him nothing but Mokuba.  
  
The father was screaming again now. "There is no such thing as friendship or love, you worthless piece of shit! It's for the weaklings! They believe in something that doesn't exist to make them feel better!"  
  
"No father," the girl whispered to him, just loud enough for Kaiba to hear it. "It is the weaklings who don't love. They are afraid to, because it is confusing and makes them feel weak. Therefore, they say it is a lie, just to be able not to love. But if it comes, you can't resist. You should know, father. You loved my mother. Did you think love was weak then, too? Or didn't you just yet?"  
  
A raw scream exited the father when Kaiba heard a terrible blow, followed by the oh-so-familiar slamming of the door. What had that been?  
  
Kaiba grunted as he got up. Three in the morning; time to work. But, while working, he was continually thinking about his dream, and the girl's words. Was it true? The words kept hanging inside his mind...  
  
Unbeknownst to Kaiba, the strange girl was outside his mansion again. He also didn't know that all of this had happened just a few hours before he had gone to sleep. DarkMG had hid somewhere, and she had managed to form her memories the right way, making him think he was inside the card again.  
  
She had read his thoughts and decided this was the right memory. She always cracked a little smile when she read in his mind that he thought it was very strange that always the memories the closest to his emotions came to him in his dreams. Of course, she always picked them out...  
  
Thoughts about his dream kept haunting him until the sun came up. He then walked down, unable to work anyways, just in time to have breakfast with his little brother. The kid noticed his brother was very silent, but he didn't ask him about it. Instead, he just kept silent too.  
  
Kaiba sighed as he got into his limousine. He had the feeling this would become a very heavy day...  
  
Lass: That was it for now! Please review! Oh yeah, I haven't thanked the people who reviewed yet! Stupidstupidstupid! But, I'll make it up to all of you Throws lots of Seto-Serenity-kissing-plushies at her faithful reviewers I hope you like them! See you later! 


	11. Breaking point

Lass: I've updated, people! Thank you to all of my reviewers! I've got some new plushies for you! Throws Seto-smiling plushies to all of them You'll get a nice collection of plushies this way! Now, on with the fic...  
  
The day was once again rainy. Kaiba was immediately irritated by this. 'Why is it always raining the past few days? It causes nothing but wetness and gigantic traffic jams!' And indeed, he was stuck in the traffic again. He still had quite a lot of time to get to school, but as this rate, he wouldn't even be there until it was already finished!  
  
Mokuba had turned out to have a light fever, forcing him to stay at home ill. He hated it, but his brother wouldn't let him go to school with a body temperature of 40ËC/104ËF.  
  
Kaiba sighed as he got his umbrella. He contacted the driver in the front. "You just get back to the mansion. I'll walk to school." He then got out of the big car and started walking.  
  
The rain was pouring down hard on the umbrella, and his day certainly didn't get better when he was about ten minutes walk from school and saw a certain group of friends with raincoats on walking in front of him. 'Oh no...'  
  
They had noticed him. "Hey, Moneybags, are ya walking in the rain? I thought you would go by limousine, or take your personal helicopter!" he was greeted by Joey.  
  
"If you hadn't noticed, mutt, there are huge traffic jams everywhere and it's a little stormy to be inside a helicopter. It would probably crash down."  
  
"So?" was Joey's immediate answer. But this was too much for one of the persons in the group.  
  
"Joey!" Serenity cried.  
  
"What? Who would care for that?" They had walked to a little behind the group, while Kaiba was speaking with Yugi. Unbeknownst to the Wheelers, Kaiba could hear what they were saying exactly, though. "It's not like he is nice to anyone, is he? I mean, he screams and insults anyone on his path. Who could care for such a piece of scum?"  
  
"Joey, this isn't fair! He isn't annoying to everyone! And I'm sure there would be people who care! Have you ever seen him bother Yugi? I mean bothering him like he bothers you? No, you haven't. You are bothering him too, but does that mean everyone wants you dead? You're bragging to other people too. He just does it a little more, but I'm sure there'll be a reason for it."  
  
Kaiba was surprised at this. 'Did Serenity, I mean Wheeler just defend me from her brother? What the hell...'  
  
"Seren, truly... You always surprise me! You're defending Kaiba now?"  
  
"Big brother, we had a fight over this already. I don't want to start all over again! Please," Serenity pleaded.  
  
"I know, Seren, but I just can't help it. He always seems to get on my nerves, and I can't do anything but trying to annoy him..."  
  
'The feeling's mutual,' Kaiba thought.  
  
"I think the feeling's mutual," Serenity said at exactly the same time. "But you could at least try, can't you? I mean, Yugi's nice to him, and he almost never bothers Yugi. It just might work..." Serenity tried.  
  
"I don't know, little sis. I just don't know..."  
  
"Hey hon!" Mai called to Joey. "Can you come over here? I've got something to ask you! It's pretty important!"  
  
"I'm sorry sis. My girlfriend's calling for me, so I'll get to her." He grinned the whole time saying this. Serenity smiled at him and told him he could go.  
  
"Just try..." she whispered. She didn't know if Joey heard it or not. Kaiba had. He stiffened a little. What was she thinking, getting into his business? Yugi was now talking to Ryou, so he was walking alone. Serenity came walking next to him.  
  
"Hi Kaiba," she said, a little shyly. He didn't answer. "Kaiba?" she tried again. He kept quiet.  
  
"Please, Kaiba, why won't you talk to me?" she asked desperately. "It's not that bad, is it? Just say 'hello'. Just say anything..." He looked at her with a freezing glare, only to be confronted with a pleading face.  
  
He hated this weak feeling. He responded to it completely the opposite of how he was feeling. Ice cold, he never gave her a chance to get closer. "I don't say hello to a Wheeler," he just said sternly.  
  
Instead of the angry reaction Joey always gave him, Serenity seemed to sound a little desperate now. "Kaiba, I'm not my brother. I haven't ever done anything to you, have I?"  
  
'Yes, you did! You made me fall in love with you,' he thought, but he didn't say it out loud. "You're the mutt's sister, which makes you a bitch. I'm not talking to any kind of dog," was all he said. Inside his mind, it was some kind of battlefield. 'Why did you just say that?'  
  
'I don't love her! Why couldn't I act like that to someone I hate?'  
  
'Understand it, Seto! You are in love with her, and hiding from them will not make those feelings disappear! Do you know how much you have probably just hurt her?'  
  
'So? Why should I care? She's the mutt's sister! Some low-life dog! She's just an annoying, meddling, worthless, pathetic, sweet... Wait a second where did that come from? What am I thinking?'  
  
'Seto, look at it! You're in love with the girl! Why won't you dare to admit it?'  
  
'I won't, because it isn't the truth! Now get away!'  
  
All the way to school, he was thinking about this. He had been talking with Yugi and Ryou for some time, but he didn't have many ideas on conversation topics, and he wasn't really in the conversation either. Mai and Joey were talking and laughing about something while Tea, Duke and Tristan seemed to be discussing something that had to do with maths. This left Serenity to walk alone...  
  
She was thinking about anything. Her father... Seto... Her whole life just seemed so messed up. Nothing seemed to go the right way...  
  
Kaiba really had no idea how much he had hurt Serenity with his words. He didn't want to think about it, either.  
  
Her head was throbbing heavily. Her father had thrown it into the wall harshly yesterday, and it had caused another heavy loss of blood. Nobody seemed to notice her while she was swaying slightly, trying very hard to maintain her balance. Luckily, they were at school soon, allowing her to go to her own class and hoping school would be over soon...  
  
Their last class! Finally! Joey was much exited about this weekend, because Mai would sleep over at his apartment (A/N: Joey had moved out, remember? If not; it's written in chapter 8). The rest of the weekend, they would do fun stuff together. He was just hoping it would stop raining soon.  
  
Serenity was less enthusiast about going home. The only good thing about it was that it was dry and sometimes even warm. But, now she thought of it; where did she want to be? Not at home, because her father would be there. Not here, or with her friends either, because she always had to act as if nothing was wrong, even when she felt horrible. But then where? 'Do I even want to be anywhere on this earth?' The answer to that question haunted her all the way back to her home, which she walked alone, because all of her friends had went somewhere else, she was told by a classmate of theirs. They had banished her from this...  
  
Kaiba was once again inside his limousine, typing away on his laptop. When he looked at his watch, he noticed any normal school girl would be at home now, so the girl he was looking for, too. Just when he had acknowledged that, he started to become drowsy the all-too-familiar way. And for some reason he just knew that what he would see, or mainly hear, now would happen right at the same time...  
  
Serenity entered her house. When she got in, she immediately noticed a strange scent between the alcohols. She didn't recognise it immediately, but when she saw her father sprawled all over the couch, she noticed something besides him. Drugs...  
  
Careful not to wake him up, she walked to her room. She didn't get the chance to go trough the door, though, when she was grabbed at her wrist. She swiftly turned around to see her father standing there.  
  
"Afraid, aren't we?" he growled, slurring his words terribly. The effects of the alcohol were increased by the drugs. "You should be!" Her head hurt of his fist hitting her.  
  
"You unworthy dog! You're nothing but a waste of time!" He grabbed his belt and hit her with it, putting her down with his words at the same time. Finally, when she was barely conscious, he stopped. She sighed in relief, but this was replaced with an even greater fear when she heard her father order her.  
  
"Put down your pants." She was terrified now, and crawled to the corner of the room. "Do it!" But she just sat there shaking with fear. Then, he started to laugh. It was a terrifying, cruel laugh. He then knocked on some door, which she knew that was his bedroom. She started crying softly when she saw three of his friends come out, smirking at her.  
  
"So, this is your daughter?" one of them said cruelly. He pulled her up, and she noticed he was even stronger than her dad. But she resisted anyways, trying to hit him. He laughed at it, giving her one big hit and making her completely disorientated. By the time she could focus on anything again, the three men had already started with her, her father standing after them smirking cruelly.  
  
"Father, help, please!" She kept screaming, but the help never came...  
  
The voice of his driver drowned the girl's screaming away. "Master? Master? We have arrived at your mansion, Master," he said. Kaiba was too shocked to answer as he walked into his mansion mindlessly; the only thing on his mind was the girl...  
  
When Serenity woke up again, her father and his friends had left. She was lying on the floor bare naked. She cried softly at the memory of that afternoon. Her decision was made. She slowly got dressed, not bothering to put the body paint on. Behind her large rain coat, no one would notice it anyways. People probably had better thing to do than to stare at some passer-by...  
  
When she was fully dressed and ready to go, she sat on her bed, the Monstriary on her lap. She opened her mind for DarkMG and Kuri. [I'll end this all...] was all she said, but they were there almost immediately.  
  
{What are you going to do, Seren?} DarkMG asked concerned.  
  
[Farewell you guys. I'm unable to handle this any longer... I'm sorry...] their shocked faces disappeared as she pulled their cards out of the Monstriary. She stood up, threw the thing with the cards down on her bed and ran out of the door, crying...  
  
Kaiba and Mokuba were sitting in the living room. Kaiba was thinking once again about who this girl could be. He was now determined to find her and help her. If only he could find out whom she was! No one at school behaved strange, or was looking like she was beaten up last night. He just couldn't figure it out.  
  
{...Wheeler...} Kaiba recognised the mind voice as DarkMG's, since he had heard it in his dreams a few times. It was really distant, almost as if someone was screaming at him from a mile away.  
  
'Wheeler? What could the dog probably have got to do with this? He's not behaving weirdly. At least, not more than ever, and I'm looking for a girl. Wheeler surely isn't...' Kaiba's face went completely white and his eyes widened. "Oh no..." he whispered.  
  
He jumped up while telling Mokuba he would be away for the evening and ran out of the door. He jumped into his sports car and pulled away quickly. His foot was practically pushing the accelerator pedal trough the bottom of the car. 'Shitty traffic jams! Shitty rain!' Many people pushed their claxon when he cut them off, but he couldn't care less. He had to get to Serenity's home right now.  
  
'How could I not have noticed? Why didn't I just know it? It was so obvious. I, of all people, should have known!' His foot pressed even harder, if possible, when he pictured Serenity in all of those dreams. He recognised the voice now, too.  
  
He pulled up at her house and ran up to the door. When it wouldn't open immediately, he just kicked it open. He was standing in the living room now. He didn't notice the blood on the floor at first. "Serenity?" he called for her. He went trough the other rooms hastily, finding nothing but a great mess.  
  
After a very short time, he got to the last room. When he saw it, he was sure it was Serenity's. Everything was put away neatly. He gasped, though, when he saw the blood on the floor. Usually, Serenity or DarkMG and Kuri would clean it. The only thing that wasn't inside a closet or something was something looking like a diary lying on her bed, opened. Kaiba couldn't hold his curiosity, so he went over. When he picked it up, though, he noticed this wasn't a diary. There were two rectangular spaces in it. Then, he noticed the two cards lying on top of it. When he took a look at them, he noticed it were a Dark Magician Girl and a Kuriboh. The spaces in the diary-like thing seemed to be made for them, so he put them in the spaces.  
  
He was really surprised when the two Monsters appeared in front of him. He gasped when he took a look at Dark Magician Girl. "You're DarkMG!" he exclaimed. He heard her answer, or parts of her answer, inside his head. {Yes... he... Kuri,} she said, while pointing at the Kuriboh. {We... explain... not now... where... Serenity?}  
  
"I don't know," Kaiba said shocked but worried.  
  
The next of DarkMG's words, he heard clearly. {Serenity, NO! Don't! Don't do it!}  
  
Kuri came in too. Everything was heard clearly by Kaiba now. {{Seren, please don't! Please... Hang on...}} Kaiba was too surprised to say anything. He wasn't yet able to know what exactly was going on. That is, until now...  
  
[I just can't anymore...] It was nothing more than a mind whisper, but it made Kaiba able to read Serenity's mind.  
  
So much pain... So many insults... Nobody cared... What was the use of living? Would anybody even grief over her? Would they even mind? All of the memories returned... The hurtful words...  
  
"You're nothing but a burden..."  
  
"You're just worth nothing..."  
  
"You murdered your mother..."  
  
"You will make everyone suffer just because you are just too weak to look after yourself..."  
  
"They wouldn't care a shit..."  
  
"Everyone would be better of without you pathetic being..."  
  
"Don't you dare to run away! Justified punishments should be taken without complaining! Only the complete weaklings would run off to tell their friends, bringing them into lots of trouble! Do you remember your other friend, Serenity? The one you told? The one that didn't survive your weakness..."  
  
"Accept it, little bitch! You're only a big trouble to anyone, not good enough to do anything right..."  
  
Unnoticed by Kaiba, because he was too wrapped up inside Serenity's memories, DarkMG and Kuri had picked him up, so that they were now flying in Serenity's direction.  
  
All of the beatings... Justified... Not able to tell anyone, because of her fear to send them into death... Just like her other friend...  
  
She had told him, hoping for help... He had tried, going to her father... She had found him inside an alley... Dead... Her father had murdered him...  
  
Her mother... She had told her... Her father beat her up every night... Her mother confronted her father... She never returned... He had murdered her too...  
  
"The same fate will be there, waiting for any other person you tell about this. Your weakness will lead them into death..."  
  
It was all too much... She would end this now... Rid the world of her unworthy presence... Only one step off the cliff... Who would care? Nobody... It would be over soon... No pain... No misery...Only one small step...  
  
Serenity, when DarkMG tried to talk to her, didn't even hear her. She was too sucked up inside her own thoughts. DarkMG said to Kuri and the now kind of back in action Kaiba {we'll have to do something quickly, just to keep her busy long enough for us to get there. We have to think of something!}  
  
"Can't we send her happy memories or something?" Kaiba asked after thinking.  
  
This afternoon... Her father's friends... It hurt so much... He never cared... Enjoyed seeing her in pain... Smirking, like anyone else would have if they had been there...  
  
{We could at least try. But you would have to help. Do you think you could handle that? I mean, you were pretty out of it a few moments ago, and we can't take that...}  
  
(I will manage,) Kaiba told them by mind talk. He knew how to do it pretty quick.  
  
{We have to stop these negative thoughts and make her think of something happy, just long enough for us to get to that cliff!} They all ducked into Serenity's thoughts now, determined to save her.  
  
Nobody loved her... She didn't deserve to be loved... She was pathetic, weak... Why would anyone care for such a useless bitch? Nobody could like, let alone love something like her...  
  
Her friends ignoring her... Her crush giving her the cold shoulder...  
  
"They have already left to school..."  
  
"Got to go, Seren..."  
  
"They told me to tell you they are going somewhere... Don't have to wait..."  
  
She deserved it...  
  
"You're a Wheeler..."  
  
"The mutt's sister... A bitch..."  
  
She deserved all of it... They did the right thing... Showing her she was worth nothing... She was just a pathetic, poor little bitch... One step from freedom...  
  
{All of the good times she had with her friends... The happiness and the warmth of their friendship welcomed her... She loved them... Her big brother...}  
  
They had succeeded in entering her mind. DarkMG had inserted these first happy thoughts. Kaiba was once again surprised at what he found there. He was her crush? He had hurt her deeply by his behaviour... And he was determined to make it up to her.  
  
{{DarkMG and Kuri... Always at her side... Helping her trough... How she had brought them to life... By her own ingenious mind... All of the good she had done to the world...}}  
  
These memories were all new to Kaiba. He was pretty surprised when he saw them. But DarkMG and Kuri couldn't hold this up much longer. There weren't many happy memories in Serenity's life. {Seto, it's all up to you now...} He knew...  
  
The step became harder to make... Bad memories started flooding over her again... She slowly started leaning forwards...  
  
(Soft, warm lips met... It was the kiss they shared... Both shocked, though enjoying every small moment of it... Their eyes meeting... The love they shared became visible... Looking at each other, though just small glances... The other might see it...)  
  
Kaiba was almost out of it, but the cliff became visible in the background. They could just see a small point on it, but they knew it was Serenity...  
  
Kaiba felt that DarkMG and Kuri were very surprised as he added the memory of the kiss. The mind connection had been locked off by then, so they had no idea.  
  
But their bond with Serenity was fading again. She got lost inside hell again.  
  
She couldn't forget all of the torture... Nor could she forget the small pieces of happiness... But did it matter any longer... She was fading anyway... Would she do it herself? Or would her father have? Just one step was the decision... Freedom would be the reward... No more doubt...  
  
She never noticed the three landing. Nor did she notice them yelling at her to stand still. She was fading... Blood loss had taken its toll... Her eyes slowly closed as she started to fall forwards, off the cliff...  
  
Lass: Wow! I think this is my best chapter, don't you? Please tell me in a review! I'll update if you review... 


	12. Closer

Lass: I'm so sorry I didn't update sooner, but my grades are dropping lower than hell, so I had to do something about it... Well, at least I've updated now! I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor do I own the song 'Closer' by MelC. Well, enjoy reading...  
  
The view was beautiful... Far below her, trees were spread over the earth. It was still raining. At that moment, it was just her and the land and the air. There were no memories, and the voices of DarkMG, Kuri and Kaiba were unheard to her. Her vision steadily passed off, leaving nothing but silent darkness. She slowly started falling into the depths, until...  
  
Two strong arms wrapped around her waist just in time to prevent her from falling. Kaiba got there in time to save her. He looked down at the girl in his arms. Her rain coat covered most of her face, but on the visible part of it, he clearly saw all bruises, scratches and dried up blood. He knew she had to be taken care of as soon as possible, and he already knew what to do. He put his hand on her throat, looking for a heartbeat. He sighed in relief when he found it. It was weak, but it was still there...  
  
(Can you carry the both of us?) he asked DarkMG and Kuri.  
  
{We probably can, but not for very long,} was the reply. Kaiba took Serenity in his arms as he quickly walked over to them. He was drenched by the rain by now, but he didn't bother.  
  
(Good. My mansion isn't too far away. I'll tell you where to go.) They took off to his mansion. The two Duel Monsters had a hard time staying in the air, but they managed. Soon, they saw the mansion in front of them. DarkMG and Kuri put Kaiba, with Serenity safely in his arms, down on the driveway. Kaiba promised them he would let them in by a window as soon as possible and got in.  
  
"Hi big brother," Mokuba said, running up to him. Sleep had easily made his fever go away, which both of them were glad about. Mokuba gasped when he saw someone in his brother's arms. "Who is that, Seto?" he asked, but Kaiba didn't have time for that.  
  
"I'll tell you later, Mokuba, not now. I'll be upstairs for a while. Tell the servants not to come up to me unless I call for them."  
  
"Okay, Seto..." Mokuba said, wondering what exactly was going on here. His brother came home drenched after he had suddenly run out of the house, with some strange person in his arms. He shook his head, knowing Seto (A/N: I'll refer to Kaiba as Seto from now, okay? It sounds a lot nicer...) would eventually explain it to him.  
  
Seto ran upstairs with the girl in his arms. He got into his room, putting her on the bed. He then got to the window as quick as possible, pulling it open roughly. DarkMG and Kuri were already waiting outside and brushed past him, getting to Serenity.  
  
Seto trusted them with this. They had probably done this all many times before. He was about to leave when DarkMG called him. {Hey, Seto, where do you think you are going? We'll need your help with this. I'll tell you what to do.} After that, a long list with needed things followed, and Seto went to get them as fast as he could.  
  
When he returned in the room, DarkMG and Kuri had gotten Serenity out of her rain coat already. He gasped at what he saw, almost dropping the stuff he had went to get. There was Serenity, but she looked horrible. Without the body paint on, he saw how she really looked. All of this, he knew, was not the result of just this afternoon. Her body was covered with bruises, cuts, dried up blood and even some fresh blood that was still oozing out of wounds. {Hurry up,} DarkMG's voice woke him from his reverie. He quickly gave her the things. {Would you please turn around now, and not to the window? We'll have to undress her completely to take care of her wounds, and I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate it if you were watching.}  
  
Seto turned as red as a tomato, something that very rarely happened to him. (I'll just leave,) he said ashamed. He had already turned around, so he didn't saw the slight smile DarkMG and Kuri shared.  
  
{No, you'd better stay. We might need you. I can't see exactly how she is now, due to all of the blood.} So Seto stayed, thinking about Serenity.  
  
'How could I not notice? All the time, she was right under my nose... If I had only looked just a little more careful, she wouldn't have suffered all of this... If only I hadn't hurt her so much...'  
  
{Seto, you can't help it. Her friends didn't notice either, and they were closer to her than you were. Her own brother didn't even notice, and you're just blaming yourself. There's no way you especially were supposed to know that, just you. Is there?} This sly question made Seto think again.  
  
'Is there? Why do I blame myself this much? Her friends didn't even know, and I made myself more like her enemy. How come I feel this guilty then?'  
  
{{I heard love can do strange things to people,}} Kuri bumped in. DarkMG was mostly busy with Serenity now, so Kuri took over the job of getting Seto to think about his feelings towards Serenity.  
  
(What? What do you mean?) Seto asked, but he already knew what Kuri meant with his words. That was also the reason Kuri didn't explain his words. (I have, haven't I?) he asked Kuri softly.  
  
{{Let me help you...}} Seto felt Kuri get into his mind and rummage around. He gasped when he felt Kuri get into his most private thoughts, of which some of them were unknown to even Seto himself. But he hadn't learned to put up a barrier yet, so there was nothing he could do about it... Various thoughts from there came up now, memories of Serenity. There was Serenity laughing, talking, and pleading, even her saving her brother the day they had met...  
  
His eyes narrowed at the worse memories, where Serenity was crying, and the look on her face when he had insulted her and the way she had looked when he came into the room.  
  
(I have, haven't I...?) he silently asked the little fluffy creature. {{You have...}}  
  
He started feeling that strange feeling again, which he had only felt towards Mokuba. Yet, this was different. This wasn't brotherly love. This was real love...  
  
{No!} DarkMG's shriek shocked both Seto and Kuri. When they looked at her, they saw her punching Serenity's stomach (A/N: Yes, Serenity was already dressed a little again, if you might get some strange ideas). {Cut the shit, this needs serious help,} she cried. She grabbed her staff and pointed it at Serenity.  
  
{{Wait!}} (What's going on?) Kuri and Seto asked.  
  
{Her heartbeat stopped...} They gasped and watched tensely. DarkMG attacked. They were looking for Serenity's heartbeat inside the deadly quiet room...  
  
And found it! It was beating softly, slowly, but it was there! They all smiled at each other. {Seto, Kuri, I need your help. She has a lot of wounds, and many of them still have to be wrapped up. Get yourself over her and get some bandages off that pile. Kuri, you take her arms. Seto, do you think you can bandage her back. It's pretty wounded, and you haven't seen something like that for a while...}  
  
Seto was once again pretty surprised at how much she knew about him, but he nodded. (I think I'll manage...) He turned Serenity to her side and pulled her shirt up a little. He bit his lip hard at what he saw there to make sure he wouldn't start crying. If he had thought it couldn't get any worse as he had just seen, he had been wrong. This managed to be even worse...  
  
He felt Kuri tense up too when the creature started bandaging Serenity's arms. Inside his head, as he was cleaning and bandaging her back softly, he was cursing Serenity's father, calling him every bad thing he had heard in his whole life. He wasn't even surprised when DarkMG and Kuri followed him soon after in a tirade at her father.  
  
Her back was finally bandaged up well. Seto had never known Duel Monsters could have such a great vocabulary. {Her head needs to be bandaged up pretty quickly now. Kuri, could you hold Serenity up? You're pretty soft, so it'll hurt less, I hope... Seto, give me anything I ask for, beginning with a damp cloth.} After a while, her head was done too.  
  
{She won't be awake anytime soon, I think. Good, now we need to watch her in turns. Who wants to watch her when. The day will be parted up in three even parts that all contain eight hours. Seto, you may choose how they are spread over the day. You've got school to attend and a job to do, right?}  
  
(School won't be for a few days and I always work less in the week-ends. I'll take the evening part which is from four in the afternoon until midnight.)  
  
{{Sounds good. I'll do the night part from midnight to eight in the morning. Not many people will be awake then, so I won't be seen.}}  
  
{That's settled then. The final eight hours are mine then. We have to discuss something else too, though. You see, I don't know how she'll react when she notices she isn't dead and that she had to be saved by someone again...}  
  
Silence was all there was inside the room, and inside their minds, as they all looked at Serenity. They knew DarkMG was right. They had no idea how she would react. They did know it probably wouldn't be good...  
  
"Seto!" they heard Mokuba call from downstairs. When they looked outside, surprised, they saw the sun had just come up. They had been taking care of Serenity the whole night! "Seto, you promised me you would take a day off and have some fun with me!"  
  
Seto looked at the monsters. [Well, it's your shift now. You probably won't need me. If you do, you know how to reach me...] he told them. Then he walked out of the room, leaving for a day with Mokuba.  
  
"Hi there, Mokuba. Did you sleep well?" he asked his little brother.  
  
"Yup," the kid answered. "Very well! I had such a nice dream, Seto! You were marrying someone! But just when you pulled up her veil so that I would see the girl, I woke up!" Mokuba kept telling Seto how beautiful it had been while they walked out of the door, and Seto smiled at him. "And then the music started playing! Oh, it sounded throughout the whole place and the two of you danced..."  
  
He was shortly interrupted by a screaming Yugi. "Kaiba, Mokuba! You have to help!" The whole gang came running up to them, including... Serenity's father. As soon as he saw the man, he knew what this was about.  
  
"What's up?" Mokuba asked, worried.  
  
"Seren's missing!" Joey screamed. "We have to find her!"  
  
"Calm down, Joey. Let me explain what's going on, ok?" Yugi asked. After a quick nod of his friend, he started. "Well, Mr. Wheeler came to Joey and he told him Serenity was gone. She had gone to buy some groceries, but she didn't come back after that. So he got worried and he started looking for her, but when he couldn't find her, he came to us for help. So would you two please help?"  
  
Seto almost smirked. 'She went to the market? 'That's a nice excuse you have there, jackass, but not nice enough.'  
  
While Mokuba answered their question, of course positive, Seto took the lead. "I think we'd better pair up in three groups. I'll lead this, since Mr. Wheeler is probably too worried to think really quickly at the moment." It was a good excuse, everyone believed it, even the guy himself, who thought that anyone had believed his lie very easily. "I'll pair you up. Mr. Wheeler, the mutt and Taylor go together. The second group contains Valentine, Devlin, Gardner and Ryou, and Yugi and Mokuba are with me."  
  
"Let's find her!" Joey called running off, not even caring Seto called him mutt, dragging Tristan and his father with him. Duke, Ryou, Mai and Tea ran into another direction. Seto smiled at himself. He had covered it all up.  
  
"Yami?" he said, therefore practically asking Yugi to change into the King of Games. Yugi, of course, did just that. With a bright flash, Mokuba and Seto were looking at Yami. "Come on, we're going to my house," he said, his voice telling them not to ask anything. Mokuba and Yami looked at each other, frowning, but they followed the CEO. They started a whispered conversation.  
  
"What's my brother doing?" Mokuba asked stunned.  
  
"Is he not going to help?" Yami responded, not knowing what this was about.  
  
"Nah, he wouldn't do that, ever... Else, why did he put you in our group? He clearly wanted you to come, and not Yugi."  
  
"Let's just follow him and we'll find out eventually," Yami ended, having no idea what else to do. Seto led them into his house and motioned for them to follow him upstairs.  
  
[DarkMG?]  
  
{Yes, Seto, what's up?} the girl asked him mentally.  
  
[I'm coming up with Mokuba and Yami. Is that all right with you?]  
  
{Yes, it's ok. I took a maid uniform from the closet downstairs, so that I would be able to talk to the maids, or at least writing something on my chalkboard, without being stared at. I told them you hired me to keep clean the highest floor. Is that ok?}  
  
[Great! I'll be right up.]  
  
He took them to the room where Serenity was lying, and whispered to them to be quiet. Then, he opened the door. Mokuba and Yami were looking at the maid standing there questionably. Was this some kind of joke?  
  
The maid walked up to them and grabbed Yami's arm. She pulled him to the gigantic bed. Then, Yami noticed there was someone in it. Mokuba, who had followed them, noticed the person inside it then too.  
  
They gasped as they recognised the person. Or not really recognised. It was Serenity in there, but she looked horrible. Her arms and face were only shown, but deep gashes already were dancing in front of their eyes. All colours of skin except for the normal slightly tanned skin, bruises, cuts... She was looking horrible!  
  
"Serenity?" Mokuba whispered, on the verge of tears. "Seto, was it her you brought in yesterday evening?" His question was answered as Seto nodded.  
  
"What happened to her, Kaiba? And how come you found her?" Yami was looking at the beaten girl shocked, not believing this could really have happened to Serenity.  
  
"Think, Yami," was all Seto could say. Serenity was looking even worse than yesterday, and he really couldn't bear seeing her like this. He was trying his hardest to keep up his tears, not willing anyone to see him cry, and telling himself over and over again that a Kaiba shouldn't cry. It was weakness, Gozaburo had always told him.  
  
Yami gasped as realisation dawned on him, and his face hardened. "The bastard..." he murmured. "It was him, wasn't it?" he asked Seto sternly. Seto only gave a nod, not trusting his voice yet. Mokuba was just staring at Serenity, still not willing to believe what had happened.  
  
Minutes passed by like this. Then, Yami asked another question. "Who to tell?"  
  
Seto had no idea he was asked a question, for he was in another conversation at the moment. [So, how is she?]  
  
{Well, not very good...} Seto looked very worried at the maid, temporarily forgetting the other persons in the room. {Seto, she... She fell into a slight coma...}  
  
Yami was about to ask his question again when he saw Seto tuning his head to the maid at Serenity's bedside, looking very... worried? Seto Kaiba looking worried? It became even more surprising when, without anyone talking, his expression changed from worried into complete sorrow and horror. Yami was completely clueless now. What was this all about?  
  
Mokuba was still just standing, looking, only shrugging his head sometimes, without saying anything.  
  
DarkMG decided to do something about this. She first walked to Mokuba, taking him by his arm. She quickly watched into Seto's mind for the location of his room. When she got in, she put the little boy on the bed. She called for Kuri to get him asleep and having nice dreams when she returned to Serenity's room.  
  
Seto was the only one there she had contact with, so she tried to get trough to him again. {Seto, please. This has happened once before; she'll recover. And this time, you'll be here to help her too. Please, Seto, snap out of it!}  
  
[Before?] Images flashed trough his mind. He saw a dirty old building. A younger, but not that much younger, Serenity and her father got inside.  
  
Then an image of a dance floor inside, having all barely dressed people dancing. Serenity was looking terrified.  
  
An image of a small room flashed inside his mind, some strange guy dragging Serenity in.  
  
No pictures were shown anymore. He heard Serenity scream, the guy screaming back.  
  
The next image he got was an unconscious Serenity being dragged home by her father, her clothes, or rather said what was left of them, blood-stained.  
  
If Seto hadn't been looked like a ghost before this; his face was now as pale as can be. [Oh... My... God...]  
  
{Snap out of it! This has happened for quite a few times! Every Saturday afternoon, to be exactly. Stop overreacting. You must do something with Yami now! He's still there you know? He asked you a question!} But Seto could hear the sadness behind the harsh words. His feelings probably brought hers up again...  
  
"Yes, Yami? What did you ask me?" he said, his cold mask used again to hide his real feelings.  
  
"Kaiba, what was going on?" the Egyptian asked with his deep voice.  
  
"I was just thinking about something else. Now, repeat your question," Seto ordered. He seemed oblivious to the worry that had been heard in Yami's voice, but Yami knew he had heard it.  
  
"I asked you who we should tell about this."  
  
"I don't think we should tell anyone yet," Seto answered. "Not until she wakes up. She has to choose what she wants to do herself..." Yami sighed, but he understood what Seto meant. He just didn't want this to happen to Serenity of all people. She seemed so innocent...  
  
"Let's go back to the others, then. We've got to get back before they will get suspicious." Seto nodded, and they walked out of the room. "Where's Mokuba, Kaiba?" Yami asked.  
  
[DarkMG, where's my little brother?]  
  
{Kuri put him to sleep, Seto. Just tell them he got tired and that you had to get him to bed. That'll explain why you'll come from this direction either... Now leave, they'll both be just fine...}  
  
"My servant put him to bed, Yami. We'll tell them he got tired and really needed to go to bed."  
  
"Fine."  
  
They walked over to the meeting point in silence, both thinking about the current situation. When they arrived, they saw Joey, Tristan and Mr. Wheeler there already. Yami's eyes hardened slightly at the sight of the last, but he didn't show it.  
  
Duke, Ryou, Mai and Tea arrived soon after. None had found Serenity, of course, and Ryou came with the idea of calling the police. Yami and Seto laughed at themselves, willing to know how he would get himself out of this one.  
  
"Ok, I'll do it. You can go home then... Thank you for helping, anyone," was his not very original escape. But no one discussed it, tire of running around the whole city.  
  
"It doesn't matter," Tea said. "After all, we are her friends, and friends help each other, right?" (A/N: I'm so sorry, Tea fans, but I just couldn't resist...)  
  
So they all returned home. When Set walked into the room Serenity was in, he heard DarkMG had put the radio on. {Ah, Seto, just in time.}  
  
[In time for what?] he asked, surprised.  
  
{They're going to play Serenity's favourite songs on the radio. She used to tell me it reminded her of her feelings to you...}  
  
Seto turned his back to her when he faced the radio, which was playing the beginning tunes of a song. With a flash, he remembered the song. He didn't want to hear it, but it was already too late...  
  
Unseen by anyone, tears formed in Seto's eyes when he heard the song that was playing...  
  
#Loving you madly will be forever  
  
I see the ocean in your eyes  
  
when we're together  
  
There are no boundaries  
  
There are no limits  
  
My heart has been embraced  
  
now that you're in it  
  
Hold me closer to your dreams  
  
Closer to your fears  
  
Close to hear your laughter  
  
Hold me when you're close to tears  
  
Time passes by seconds into minutes  
  
Every field and flower fades  
  
but love is infinite  
  
There are no boundaries  
  
There are no limits  
  
My heart's a bigger place  
  
now that you're in it  
  
Hold me closer to your dreams  
  
Closer to your fears  
  
Close to hear your laughter  
  
Hold me when you're close to tears  
  
I wanna be the one  
  
you tell your secrets to  
  
All I want is to be closer  
  
closer to you  
  
How tight can you hold me?  
  
How long can we stay awake?  
  
How hard can we laugh?  
  
How much love can we make?  
  
Hold me closer to your dreams  
  
Closer to your fears  
  
Close to hear your laughter  
  
Hold me when you're close to tears  
  
I wanna be the one  
  
you tell your secrets to  
  
All I want is to be closer  
  
closer to you...#  
  
He didn't notice DarkMG had left the room. He dropped on his knees next to her bed, tears streaming down his face. His body shook from crying. It was something Seto hadn't done for years, but this song seemed to put every bit of misery of the past together, making it crash down upon him like a tidal wave.  
  
Slowly, he cried himself to a restless, short sleep...  
  
DarkMG had told the servants he didn't want anyone to disturb him and that, if they did, they would be fired immediately. Therefore, that afternoon, nobody entered that room.  
  
When Seto woke up, he found himself lying on the floor, his face wet with tears. Without a word, he went to the bathroom and washed it. He re-entered the room and sat on the bed, his face blank.  
  
It had already become dark, and DarkMG had come to bring him food. He had ate it silently.  
  
Suddenly, the microphone at the wall cracked. His head shot up. "What is it?" he said, his voice cold as ice, still not willing to show any emotions.  
  
The nervous voice of his maid sounded trough the microphone. "Master Kaiba, sir, there's some guy here at the front door who desperately wants to be let in. He says his name is Wheeler and that he has to talk to you about something very important..."  
  
Kaiba was thinking. Should he let the bastard in or not? Then, he took a look at Serenity lying on the bed, bruises and cuts still very well visible on her face, and he decided.  
  
"Let him in..."  
  
Lass: Well, what do you think? Please review! I promise I'll update sooner next time! 


	13. Heaven forever

Lass: I'm SO sorry I didn't update sooner, but I just had this huge writer's block. I hope you all like this chapter and that you'll all forgive me. I had these wonderful reviews of you all, and that made me finish this story. I want to thank you all so much about those. Oh yeah, I'm still trying to get enough money to buy Yu-Gi-Oh, but it's not mine... YET! Well, let's continue...

Seto was sitting on the bedside. He knew some Mr. Wheeler was now coming upstairs. He even heard the footsteps coming. They became louder as the man climbed the stairs. He wondered what he would actually do. It could be the mutt, but it could be her father too...

'I guess I'll just let what I'll do depend on who it is and what he will do...' he thought.

He heard his maid knock on the door. "Enter," he sighed. The door opened to reveal his trembling maid and...

Her father. He had hoped it would be the mutt, but he didn't seem to be lucky today. The guy looked at his daughter very worriedly. Seto felt like he had to puke at his slimy behaviour while he walked at the bed. He sent the maid away, and not even too harsh.

When they heard the door close, the two men looked at each other, both with glares that could freeze ice (A/N: And to think ice is already frozen...) "You know, don't you?" the father of the girl on the bed opened conversation.

The look in Seto's eyes told him all he needed to know. "Did she tell you?"

Seto was quite relieved. He didn't seem to be drunk tonight, but he couldn't be sure. "No, she didn't tell me," he said carefully. "I found out myself." He waited for a reaction... any reaction. But the other silently sat on the bedside, opposite from him, just staring at his daughter. A smile slowly found its way onto his face.

Torturing minutes they sat there, waiting for each other to do something. The room was threateningly quiet. Then Mr. Wheeler (A/N: from now on, I shall refer to him as Rick, no offence to any people who go by that name) suddenly looked straight into Seto's eyes. "She deserved it, you know? The bitch would never do anything right, so he had to be punished. She should be glad I still let her live." He stated it as if it was the most common thing in the world, calm and determined.

Seto, although surprised, answered just as calmly. "You're a bastard, you know. A real bastard. Serenity never did anything wrong, and you know that. Why in Ra's name do you punish her because you mess up your own bloody life?"

Rick's eyes widened, revealing bloodshot eyes. So he had been drinking after all...

"How dare you, you insolent creature? You don't know anything at all. You're just a rich prick that thinks he's so much better than the others around him. Do you know how that feels, huh? Do you know that? How it feels to struggle trough life every bloody day. To have all those people around you who think they are the best, while they make you feel like you're an insignificant person. No, of course you don't! Because you're exactly one of those persons!

You probably don't even know me at all! Have you got any idea it was me you fired three months ago? Just because I was late once! You didn't bother at all what would happen to me because I lost the job! Some fckin' one told you I was five bloody minutes late at work and you bastard told him he could fire me! Without even bothering! He told me you said that you could 'easily find a replacement' for me! But did you even bother to think of how that would affect me?"

While screaming like that, Rick attacked Seto. He was easily able to defend himself to the drunken guy, but the words certainly affected him. He had indeed never thought of that before.

Both were determined to win this time, one because he could then kill the CEO and his daughter and the other because he could then let the crazy man be taken in by the police. DarkMG silently told him the cops would be there as soon as possible. He should just hold on for a while.

They threw punches at each other, both hitting but never being knocked out. Then, Rick looked directly into Seto's eyes. The world seemed to come to a stop.

"Did you ever bother to think of how that would affect her?"

Seto didn't move, being too shocked to do so. In that one moment, Rick pushed him backwards, making him fall to the ground. He grabbed something from his back pocket, but Seto could only recognise it when it was pointed straight at his heart.

Rick grinned, sensing his victory being close.

"Haven't you learnt to never let your guard down? Well, I guess it's too late for regret now, isn't it, boy?"

Seto growled but, with the gun pointed right at him, there was nothing he could do.

"This must've taught you not to meddle with someone else's business. Too bad you won't be able to practice that one..." His finger touched the trigger. It slowly clasped around it. Now, only one pull would end Seto's life.

"Farewell..." he whispered. The CEO's eyes widened when the man let out a scream and stumbled forwards. He fell on his knees, revealing a figure behind him...

Serenity!

She was as pale as a ghost, making the bruises on her face stand out clearly. She had kicked him against his knees, apparently, and was now looking at Seto, urging him to do something. Luckily, he got the hint and kicked Rick's hand, making the gun fly out of his hands. He screamed in rage and pain from Seto's thrust and looked at the two in pure rage.

He started to lunge at Serenity, the weaker of the two, but something stopped him.

The look in her eyes was haunting. She was looking straight at him, showing no fear at all. The room was dead silent until she spoke up.

"Why father? Why do you do all of this? What is it that makes you do this?"

There was no hate in her voice, any fear or sadness. There was only the need to know the answer. The full truth. But her father would never answer, and she knew.

"You hurt me badly, always, no matter how hard I tried to be the perfect daughter. I was never good enough for you; you always had to point out my smallest mistakes, making me feel like a big failure. I was about to give it all up because of you, because of what you said. But father, I won't take it anymore. I now realize that you were wrong. There are people who care about me, people I would hurt by killing myself. And I don't want that. I won't give up, let you win. Never.

I am strong, father, and I won't let myself be controlled by you anymore. I will live my life the way I want to, like when you were away. I will let my wounds heal, the ones you have inflicted upon me, and let it become scars. I know some will never fade, both physically and mentally, but they will give me strength, letting me know I've come trough this.

I've fallen deep, father, but I'll climb back up again. And now I know I won't be alone while doing that. My friends will help me wherever they can to make it easier to me, but I highly doubt there'll be someone to help you get your life back to how it was before. Get it back to however it was before you became violent and an alcoholic.

But I offer it to you. I wish to climb back up there with you. To help you get back up. Yet, I can only do that when you let me. Please, father. Will you accept?"

She put out her hand to him, all the while looking straight into his eyes. Rick looked down, at his daughter's outstretched hand, and started to shake.

"Even after all I put you trough, you still want to do this for me? You will forgive me while I'm still the same you grew up with; a violent father, although father isn't a good word for it. I've never been much of a father to you, have I?"

Tears slowly crept down his cheeks as he fell to his knees. He started to sob, not noticing the sirens coming closer to the mansion. None inside the room did.

Serenity sighed and knelt in front of her father, putting her hands on his shoulders. She gave him a small reassuring smile.

"That doesn't matter anymore. I am giving you a chance to be a real father to me, and to Joey. All you have to do is accept it."

Not able to speak, Rick gave her a nod. Serenity's smile grew wider as she embraced her father and even Seto couldn't help but smile at the sight before him.

When the cops entered the room they stopped in their tracks. The CEO of Kaiba Corporation was standing besides the door, smiling, and in the middle of the room a man and his daughter were hugging each other. Although they did not comprehend, they knew not to speak.

After several minutes, the father stood with his eyes dry, but his cheeks were still wet. He addressed the cops calmly.

"You can turn me in now. Although my daughter has forgiven me I have still got much to pay for. I shall do as you wish for me to and then return to finally get a chance to be a real father again. And as for you," he said as he turned to Seto "please take good care of my daughter for me until I'm back. I trust you with her."

He walked after an agent, the rest following soon. This left Seto and Serenity alone inside the room. Serenity got up and walked towards him. He started to talk nervously.

"Yeah, well, er..."

He was silenced as Serenity put one finger to his lips.

"Hush, don't speak. I know everything. While I was in a coma, I saw it all. Don't worry anymore."

She looked up into his eyes, smiling. Slowly, he started smiling as well. They embraced each other, never wanting to lose each other. Their faces got closer and just before their lips met, both whispered at the same time

"I love you..."

As they heard the applause from the door they hastily pulled away. When they looked they saw all of their friends smiling at them, including DarkMG and Kuri. They both smiled nervously, but everyone was smiling cheerily at them, congratulating them. That is, until Joey decides to speak up.

"The fact that you're my sister's boyfriend doesn't mean I like you all of a sudden, Moneybags. I'd still better watch my back if I were you," he threatened.

Seto looked at him coldly. "The feeling's mutual, mutt. I just don't think I've got anything to fear from you."

But all could see the two were only kidding. They'd keep this up for a while longer, but it just wasn't real anymore. Everyone burst out in laughter at Seto's next words.

"But I've still got your sister as my hostage." And with that, he swept her into another passionate kiss, both feeling like they would be in heaven forever.

THE END...

Serenity: Well, I guess this was the last chapter. Lass is too shy to say, though, that she's very bad at ending things. This is, in fact, the first story she has ever managed to finish, so BIG APPLAUSE EVERYBODY!!!

Lass: Thank you, Serenity, but that won't be necessary. I'd be happy with some reviews. Thank you all for reading this, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have.


	14. Author Note

Hello all of you there! I finished my first story – finally! I hope you all liked it, and I'd like to thank all of my reviewers once again.

Look, I'm up for a challenge. I'd love to have some challenges for some (preferably) one-shot fics. This are some demands to your idea ;) : the genre should have romance in it, and I'd love to have Serenity in it too, but that's not really a 'must'. Songfics are allowed too, just give me the title of the song and I'll look it up. If you have any ideas, would you please tell me about them? I'll try to write a fic. Yaoi-couples are accepted too, most of the time. If I really don't like the pairing, I don't think I'll be able to write a good, or at least acceptable, fic about it (which, by the way, counts for hetero pairings too). I hope all of you out there understand that and don't get mad at me.

Well, I hope you'll accept and send me an idea.

See ya all later,

Lass.


End file.
